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.
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“Congress is certifying our great electoral victory today – a great moment in history,” the president-elect declared on his Truth Social platform Monday morning, posting a few minutes later a photo of the crowd of his supporters gathered in Washington on January 6, 2021.
The only potential downside for Donald Trump: the American capital was covered in a blanket of snow overnight which made it difficult for elected officials to travel to the Capitol.
The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, had also issued a warning to them on Sunday: “Don’t leave town.”
“On January 6, at 1 p.m. – whether we are in the middle of a blizzard or not – we will be in this chamber to ensure” this certification, he declared.
Some Donald Trump loyalists have already shown their determination in the face of the harsh weather conditions.
“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 N.2 of the American state had been at the heart of Republican protests. Donald Trump, 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,” before thousands of them marched towards the Capitol.
The temple of American democracy had experienced a surge of violence: attackers hitting overwhelmed police officers with iron bars, breaking windows before entering the building, shouting “Hang Mike Pence”.
Four people in the crowd died that day, two of them from a heart attack 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.
Congress finally certified Joe Biden’s victory the next morning.
The American president called on Sunday not to “forget” or “rewrite” the events of January 6, describing to the press the attitude of Donald Trump at the time “a real threat to democracy”.
“Mirror”
Because if the event shocked the United States and the world at the time, the traces in the minds of Americans are disappearing little by little 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.
At the beginning of December, Donald Trump had promised to examine from the “first day” of his return to the White House potential pardons for his supporters who had stormed the Capitol, more than a thousand of whom were condemned by the justice.
A decision that would go down badly with the Democrats, but also with certain police officers present and injured that day, like Aquilino Gonell, who criticized the Republican’s promise in a column in the New York Times.
“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,” wrote the ex-police officer.
