4 years of Capitol Hill riots: Trump's 'day of love' gets a new meaning

Donald Trump was set to cap a historic political comeback on Monday as Congress certifies his election victory, in a remarkable turn from four years ago, when a mob he had summoned to Washington ransacked the US Capitol.

The president-elect spent much of his campaign facing prosecution over the 2021 insurrection, when his supporters – fueled by his false claims of voter fraud – rioted to halt the certification of his defeat to Joe Biden.

But Trump, 78, was voted back into office in November and all indications are that Monday’s ceremony will go much more smoothly, even with a major winter storm blanketing the capital and much of the country in snow.

Trump has described it as the “day of love”

What’s unclear is if Jan. 6, 2021, was the anomaly, the year Americans violently attacked their government, or if this year’s expected calm becomes the outlier. The U.S. is struggling to cope with its political and cultural differences at a time when democracy worldwide is threatened. Trump calls Jan. 6, 2021, a “day of love.”

“CONGRESS CERTIFIES OUR GREAT ELECTION VICTORY TODAY — A BIG MOMENT IN HISTORY,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social.

Monday marks the final blow to efforts to have the Republican leader face justice over the riot, the culmination of a multi-pronged alleged criminal conspiracy that prosecutors said Trump led – before they dropped all charges upon his election.

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What happened on Jan 6, 2020

On January 6, the first anniversary of the violent mob attack on the U.S. Capitol for which around 1,580 individuals had been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. The rioters were filmed assaulting the Capitol while wielding a variety of weapons, including firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, pepper spray, bear spray, a tomahawk axe, a hatchet, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a large Trump billboard, Trump flags, a pitchfork, pieces of lumber, crutches and even an explosive device.

Trump has vowed to pardon an unspecified number of the rioters – around 900 of whom have admitted federal charges from trespassing and vandalism to assaulting police – describing them as “hostages.”

In a Washington Post op-ed, Biden slammed Trump’s allies for downplaying the violence of 2021 and urged Americans to be “proud that our democracy withstood this assault.”

“We cannot accept a repeat of what occurred four years ago,” he said. “An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite – even erase – the history of that day.”

Trump has vowed to pardon many of the Jan. 6 defendants within his first hour in office, effectively undoing the legal consequences of their actions and disregarding the legal system’s response to an unprecedented assault on American democracy.

However, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted in early December found that two-thirds of Americans oppose pardoning those convicted for their role in the riot. However, majorities of Republicans (60%) and Trump supporters (69%) are in favour of pardons.

Emotional trauma

No Democratic leaders have followed the Republican example this time around and objections to certifying Trump’s victory are not expected on Monday.

Trump was impeached for inciting the 2021 insurrection after delivering a raucous speech outside the White House early in the day, demanding that supporters march on the Capitol and “fight like hell.”

Thousands attacked the citadel of American democracy – battering police with metal bars and flag poles, smashing windows, sending lawmakers running in fear and chanting “Hang Mike Pence!”

Four people died – two from heart attacks, one from a potential overdose, and a rioter fatally shot by police as she tried to force her way into the House chamber. Four police officers committed suicide subsequently.

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has vowed to investigate the House committee that probed the riot and found that Trump had instigated it after the failure of a host of other schemes to overturn an election he knew he had lost.

Meanwhile, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement the Justice Department had over the last four years charged more than 1,500 people suspected of involvement in the “unprecedented attack on a cornerstone of our system of government.”

The certification – which launches a two-week countdown towards Trump’s January 20 inauguration – has been designated for the first time as a national security special event, with 500 National Guard personnel on standby.

But the federal government and Washington public schools were closed Monday with up to a foot (30 centimeters) of snow expected.

“Four years ago today, our nation watched in horror as a terrorist mob stormed the Capitol grounds and desecrated our temple of Democracy in a violent attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power,” Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who was House speaker at the time of the rebellion, said in a statement.

“The January 6th insurrection shook our Republic to its core — and left behind physical scars and emotional trauma on members of our congressional community and our country that endure to this day.”

With inputs from agencies.