Memories of January 6 attack fade at Capitol as Trump returns to power

WASHINGTON — Inside the Capitol, memories of the violence are increasingly difficult to find.

The scars on the walls have been repaired. Windows and doors broken by rioters have been replaced. And there are no plaques, displays, or memorabilia of any kind.

Lawmakers rarely mention the attack, and many Republicans try to downplay it, echoing President-elect Donald Trump’s assertions that the carnage of that day is exaggerated and that the rioters are victims.

In some ways, it is as if the insurrection of January 6, 2021, which shook the foundations of American democracy, never happened.

“It’s been erased,” said Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt. “Winners write history and Trump won. And his version is that it was a peaceful gathering. Obviously completely false.

If Trump pardons the rioters, as he has announced he will do after taking office on Jan. 20, it would “put an exclamation point on his version of what happened,” Welch said.

Some of the 1,250 defendants convicted of crimes after Jan. 6 called for the deaths of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, and Mike Pence, who was Trump’s vice president, as the mob had violently invaded the police and entered the building. Some carried weapons, zip ties, chemical irritants, Confederate flags as they ransacked the Capitol and searched for lawmakers. They sought to prevent the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Trump, echoing the Republican incumbent’s false claims that the election was stolen.

But the disruption was only temporary. Congress resumed its work that evening and completed its constitutional role.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict Trump of impeachment after Jan. 6, said “it was a very, very dark time.” Some lawmakers, she said, “really want to put this behind us.”

There are, however, different reasons for this.

Former Republican Sen. Mike Braun, a frequent Trump ally who left Congress this year and was elected governor of Indiana, said many in the party believe the Justice Department “has been used to disproportionately against » certain rioters. He said many lawmakers at the Capitol on Jan. 6 wanted there to be as much distancing as possible by then.

“I think we all remember that,” Braun said. But, he added, “if you start putting up plaques, it seems like it’s going to further deepen the divisions on this issue.” And maybe the best medicine is just to keep moving forward.

Congress passed a law in March 2022 requiring “an honorary plaque listing the names of all officers of the United States Capitol Police, the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, and other law enforcement agencies laws at the federal, state, and local levels. protective entities that responded to the violence that occurred at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”

The Architect of the Capitol was ordered to obtain the plaque within a year and place it permanently on the west side of the Capitol, where the worst fighting took place.

But almost three years later, there is no more plaque. We don’t know why or who is responsible. A spokeswoman for the Architect of the Capitol referred questions to the House Sergeant-at-Arms, who did not respond to requests for information.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York and then-Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky signed the plaque, according to a Senate leadership aide who was familiar with the process but was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York also lent his support. A spokesperson for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., did not respond to requests for comment.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, who led the House Administration Committee when the law was signed into law, wrote Johnson in May to ask why the plaque had not been installed. “If there is a reason for the delay, I look forward to any information you can share to that end and what is being done to address it,” Lofgren said.

She never got an answer.

“It’s not just about the plaque, although it means something to the officers who were there, but about the fact that no one cares enough about them to uphold the law and recognize the sacrifice they made for us and for our country,” Lofgren said. said. “This service to their country was not respected.”

New York Rep. Joe Morelle, now the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said the refusal to display the plaque was part of an effort to “deny that January 6 is produced and the harm it has caused to the U.S. Capitol Police.”

Metropolitan Police officer Daniel Hodges, who fought off the rioters and was filmed screaming as they crushed him in a doorway leading to the inauguration stage, said that it was “incredibly offensive” that the plaque was not installed.

“It’s an incredibly simple thing, but it can mean a lot to so many people who fought that day to defend democracy, to defend Congress, to defend the vice president and the staff,” he said. he declared. He said the January 6 date had become a political issue. “That shouldn’t be the case,” he said.

Hodges said he expects to be working Inauguration Day, among the thousands of police officers who will protect the president and the city on Jan. 20.

Former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who retired due to his injuries fighting rioters near the Western Front Tunnel, said he lost “my career, my health” and even some friends and family in the aftermath of the attack. He and Hodges were among the few members of law enforcement to speak publicly about their experiences.

“Looking back, it’s like it was all for nothing,” Gonell said. “It’s a betrayal.”

He said he would like the plaque to be placed on the Western Front so Trump could see it before he takes the inauguration stage in a few weeks.

Trump “could read the officers’ names right before he leaves,” Gonell said. “So he could know that his actions had consequences.”

In the days following the Capitol siege, Republican condemnation was near universal.

“Count me in,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a top Trump ally, said on the night of Jan. 6. Then-Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California said a week later that Trump “bears responsibility” for the attack.

But McCarthy quickly made amends, traveling to Florida a few weeks later to meet with Trump. It was a fateful decision that marked the beginning of Trump’s slow return to power. When Trump returned to the Capitol last year during his campaign, Republican lawmakers not only met him, but they also gave him a standing ovation.

During this period, Republican attitudes toward the January 6 attack changed. Republican lawmakers condemned the work of the Democratic-led committee that investigated the riot and fiercely disputed its findings. Some Republicans echoed Trump’s comments that the jailed rioters are “hostages” who could deserve a pardon.

Still, the issue could prove delicate for Trump, who promised pardons from “day one.” It’s unclear how many people he plans to pardon or whether the most violent offenders would be included.

“If they physically attacked police officers, I don’t think they deserve to be pardoned,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, one of Trump’s closest allies, said in an interview at CNN. “I think they should serve their time.”

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Democrat of Nevada, said there were legacies of the attack even without a plaque on the wall — like increased security during this year’s certification and Biden’s invitation to Trump to come to the Oval Office after the election. , a return to the peaceful transition of power.

“You don’t think people were thinking in the back of their minds, this was different from January 6?” she said. “So it’s playing out, it’s important.”

Congress updated the Electoral Count Act, the obscure law that governs the certification of a presidential election, to make it harder for members of Congress to object to the results.

Yet with Trump back in office and many Republicans supporting his version of events, Democrats have said they fear a false narrative of Jan. 6 will gain even more traction.

“If you don’t want to remember history, then the chances of it repeating itself are that much greater,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. “There should be a moment of silence or a commemoration. There should definitely be a plaque.

In the days after the insurrection, Rep. Jim Himes, Democrat of Connecticut, said he thought they should keep a broken window as a memento. But the windows have been replaced, reinforced and cleaned. Little evidence remains of the extensive damage, running into millions of dollars, that the rioters inflicted on the building.

It’s “painful” to see attempts to rewrite what happened, Himes said, but he doesn’t think Jan. 6, 2021, will be forgotten.

“I trust the story,” Himes said.