On January 6, 2021, hundreds of supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in Washington to contest the election of Joe Biden for president. Four years later and in the same place, Congress on Monday certified the Republican’s victory and sanctioned his triumphant return.
The only potential downside for the future president: the weather services have issued a winter storm alert for part of the United States, including Washington.
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The American capital will be covered in a blanket of snow and travel for elected officials to the Capitol could be complicated.
The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, also issued a warning to them on Sunday: “Don’t leave town.”
The law “requires it,” he said: “On January 6, at 1:00 p.m. – whether we are in the middle of a blizzard or not – we will be in this chamber to ensure” this certification.
Some Donald Trump loyalists have already shown their determination in the face of the harsh weather conditions.
“I am here and I will walk to the Capitol if necessary,” said Republican elected official Marjorie Taylor Greene on X on Saturday.
Certification by Congress traditionally represents a formality before the official inauguration of the new president on January 20.
Protocol irony, it is Kamala Harris, Donald Trump’s defeated rival, who will officiate on Monday, in her capacity as vice-president.
“Like devils”
In 2021, this role of no 2 of the American state had been at the heart of the protests against Donald Trump. The Republican billionaire who then repeatedly repeated, without evidence, that the election had been “stolen” from him, had urged his vice-president Mike Pence to refuse to certify Joe Biden’s victory.
And in a speech in front of the White House on the morning of January 6, he called on his supporters to “fight like hell,” shortly before thousands of them marched towards the Capitol.
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The temple of American democracy then experienced a surge of violence: attackers hitting overwhelmed police officers with iron bars, breaking windows before entering the building or shouting “Hang Mike Pence!”.
Four people in the crowd had died that day, two of them from heart attacks and another from a potential drug overdose. The last, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by a police officer while she tried to force her way into the chamber of the House of Representatives.
Four police officers also committed suicide in the days and weeks after the attack.
Donald Trump had followed the events on television from the White House, and only intervened to call for calm after several hours.
Congress finally certified Joe Biden’s victory the next morning.
On Sunday, Joe Biden called not to “forget” or “rewrite” the events of January 6.
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“I don’t think we should act like nothing happened,” he told reporters at the White House, calling Mr. Trump’s attitude at the time “real threat to democracy.
“Mirror”
If the event shocked the United States and the world at the time, the traces in the minds of Americans are gradually fading today.
And a majority of voters did not hold it against Donald Trump in November.
On the Republican side, many today prefer not to talk about it.
“I’m not looking in the rearview mirror,” Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CBS News. “It was four years ago. I think Americans live in the present,” he added.
The senator also preferred to touch on the question of pardons for the January 6 attackers, affirming that the decision would be up to the president.
At the beginning of December, Donald Trump promised to examine potential pardons for his supporters who had stormed the Capitol from the “first day” of his return to the White House.
A decision that would go down badly on the Democratic side, but also on the side of certain police officers present and injured that day, like Aquilino Gonell, who castigated in a forum at the New York Times the republican’s promise.
“I sometimes wonder why I risked my life to defend elected officials from a mob motivated by Mr. Trump, all to see him return to power stronger than ever,” the ex-police officer also wrote.
