Driving down Historic Third Avenue on Tuesday afternoon, U.S. flags flew in front of four houses, puzzling at first – it wasn’t Veterans Day, and Presidents Day had not yet arrived – yet the date was unmistakable: Tuesday was Jan. 6, a day tied to a moment when the peaceful transfer of presidential power in the United States was deliberately attacked.
On Jan. 6, 2021, more than 2,000 people forced their way into the U.S. Capitol as Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 election. Police officers were beaten. Lawmakers were chased from the chambers. Gallows were erected outside. Rioters threatened the lives of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence in an effort to halt the counting of electoral votes that would confirm Joe Biden as the duly elected president. More than 140 law enforcement officers were injured, and at least five people died as a result of the attack.
President Donald Trump watched the violence unfold on television from the White House. According to multiple witnesses, aides and allies urged him to intervene. He did not. For hours, the attack continued without a call for calm from the person with the greatest power to stop it.
Some elected officials tried to recast the assault as patriotism. Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert declared that day, “Today is 1776.” The record tells a different story. What occurred on Jan. 6 was an insurrection. The goal was not independence or reform. It was to overturn an election that had already been decided, confirmed, and since upheld by the courts – including by Republican-appointed judges.
Trump lost the 2020 election by more than seven million votes. Recounts and audits affirmed the outcome. Courts rejected more than 60 legal challenges for lack of evidence. Still, Trump and his allies pressed state officials to change results, organized false slates of electors, and urged the vice president to reject certified votes. When those efforts failed, the Capitol was breached.
Former Special Counsel Jack Smith testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 17 about his investigations into Donald Trump, defending his prosecutions as supported by “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” in the election interference and classified documents cases. He told Congress the Jan. 6 attack “does not happen without Donald Trump,” calling him “by a large measure the most culpable,” and noted that key evidence came from officials of both parties who put allegiance to the Constitution above party loyalty. Many spoke out then; many have since gone silent. Trump remains unaccountable.
That absence of accountability has consequences. A Supreme Court ruling granting broad presidential immunity has emboldened a president who has long claimed that power places him above restraint. Years before entering office, Trump was recorded saying that when you are a star, “you can do anything.”
No, Mr. President – you cannot do anything, especially when it comes to a woman’s body.
Today, that sense of impunity extends to a brazen disregard for the law. The Department of Justice has twice missed deadlines to release the Epstein files, which detail his association with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his trafficking of underage girls. At the same time, his administration has issued mass pardons to Jan. 6 participants, and government records related to the attack – including databases and official documentation – have been deleted or withheld.
As the federal government moves to minimize or erase Jan. 6, the responsibility to preserve the truth has shifted. NPR’s investigative archive now serves as the most comprehensive public record of that day because journalists went to court to keep evidence from disappearing. Locally, the Herald and other community newsrooms continue to do the same: documenting facts, preserving memory, and providing a public record when institutions fail to do so.
The flags on Third Avenue now fly on Jan. 6, a date when, before 2021, they essentially did not. What matters is whether we remember why that day now carries weight, and whether we are willing to defend the truth when those in power will not.
History matters. We can learn from what has come before – and do better. We can – and must.
