In 2020, Donald Trump was the 45th President of the United States. After having made a successful career for himself building real estate at his father’s company, he decided to turn to the world of politics in the early 2000s, running for President under the Reform Party. Failing that campaign, he decided to run in the Republican Primary in 2016. Due to his many populist policies on immigration and gun rights, he managed to win the electoral college, despite losing by 5 million popular votes to the Democratic nominee, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
Despite his highly controversial stances on race, which was especially highlighted in his last year due to large Black Lives Matter Protests following the death of George Floyd during a widely publicised incident of police brutality, immigration and abortion, he had managed to amass himself a large following, dubbed MAGA Loyalists, after his campaign slogan in 2016 of “Make America Great Again”, due to his policies on tax cuts, deregulation and higher military spending. He was the oldest person to ever by elected to the office of President at 70 years and 220 days old. However, that would soon change.
Joe Biden, Vice President to Barack Obama and Delaware Senator for almost 4 decades before that, was nominated as the Democratic Nominee for the 2020 ballot. Despite being 78, he was considered to be quite a popular candidate among the Democrats, among the 29 people who ran for the primaries, the most candidates since 1972. While many thought Bernie Sanders would get the nomination, his highly Socialist policies scared the Democrats so the support was shifted to Biden.
However, to the public, his image had declined since the end of Obama’s presidency. He was considered to be senile and many believed he suffered from dementia or alzheimer’s due to his lacklustre performance in the two debates that he and Trump had. While Trump’s rallies were held in close quarters areas, with many MAGA Loyalists not wearing face masks due to Trump’s downplay of the severity of the coronavirus, Biden’s rallies were more lowkey, where supporters would mostly stay in their cars and honk their horns in approval of what he said.
However, Donald Trump’s slow response to the COVID-19 pandemic was a hot topic amongst voters, who believed his inaction compared to many other countries such as Italy, the UK and China cost thousands more American lives that could’ve been saved. Not only that but Trump had also become the third President to ever be put on trial for Impeachment, after the House of Representatives believed that he had hired Ukrainian hackers to intentionally dig up dirt on Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, who had been suffering with drug problems for much of his adult life. The upcoming election on November 3rd was considered to be very close.
The election night came and it was was incredibly close, with the results not being announced until 4 days after the voting stopped. Many Democrat voters tended to mail in their choice, due to the spread of COVID-19, whilst many Republicans voted in person. By November 7th, the results were in. Biden had won 306 Electoral Votes, with 51.3% of the popular vote. Trump received 232 Electoral Votes with 46.9% of the popular vote. Biden had won the race. However, this answer was not acceptable to Donald Trump
I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!
Donald Trump’s tweet, November 7th 2020
THE OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED INTO THE COUNTING ROOMS. I WON THE ELECTION, GOT 71,000,000 LEGAL VOTES. BAD THINGS HAPPENED WHICH OUR OBSERVERS WERE NOT ALLOWED TO SEE. NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WERE SENT TO PEOPLE WHO NEVER ASKED FOR THEM!
Donald Trump’s tweet, November 7th 2020
71,000,000 Legal Votes. The most EVER for a sitting President!
Donald Trump’s tweet, November 7th 2020
Despite Twitter itself calling Trump out on these false claims of voter fraud, Trump and his loyal supporters stood firm, that the election had been rigged in favour of Joe Biden and that many of the mail in ballots had been falsified. His administration investigated and found that there was zero proof of voter fraud in favour of either party. Trump, furious and believing the election was rigged, decided there was only one way left to turn.
On January 6th, 2021, the day that Congress was supposed to certify the electoral vote count, Donald Trump went up on a stage in the Ellipse, a large park near the White House. Around him were gathered thousands of his supporters. Many people spoke at the rally, including Rudy Giuliani, former New York President, John Eastman, Chapman University Professor, and members of Trumps family such as Donald Jr, Eric and Eric’s wife, Lara. Eventually, Trump got up on the stage, espousing the rhetoric that he had been for the past two months, that the election was rigged and that the media was turning against the Republicans.
I hope Mike [Pence] is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so. Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. […] We will not let them silence your voices. We’re not going to let it happen, I’m not going to let it happen. […] We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.
Excerpts from Trump’s speech
He called for his Vice President, Mike Pence, and other members of the House of Representatives to overturn the election, whilst asking his voters to “fight” for their country, by marching to the Capitol and taking the building by force. Some of the crowd members included paramilitary White-Supremacist groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, who had attended the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, PA, to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert Lee. The protest in Charlottesville eventually turned racist, with many Neo-Nazis, white supremacists and even old leaders of the Ku Klux Klan in attendance, and eventually violent, when one of these white supremacists rammed his car into a group over counter protesters, killing one and injuring several.
At 12:53, while Trump is wrapping up in the park, a group of MAGA Loyalists began to march down Pennsylvania Avenue and began to assault the Western Barrier around the Capitol Building, which was being guarded by police officers. Eventually, enough of a push was made and the Trump Supporters got through the barriers.
Clashes between Trump Supporters and the Capitol Guard became more and more frequent, as more supporters began to arrive. While the police got more and more overwhelmed, the normally formal procedure was consistently interrupted by Republican Senators and Officials, such as Ted Cruz, who all insisted that the election was stolen from them. These interruptions became more and more frequent and, eventually, the two parties were moved to separate rooms to debate the matter.
At around 2pm, the East side is also breached by Trump Supporters, while on the West side, Trump Supporters had managed to actually enter the Capitol Building itself. The Senate was called into recess and immediately and efficiently evacuated. Trump Supporters roamed the halls, vandalising the building as they went, most notably tearing Nancy Pelosi’s name off a wooden plaque on a wall.
One of the bravest men that day was Police officer, Eugene Goodman, who managed to protect Mitt Romney from the oncoming rioters, and managed to divert them away from the Senators who were still being evacuated. However, the House of Representatives was still in session as the rioters were attempting to breach. During the attempted breach, one of the rioters was shot by the secret service guarding the House Chamber.
Violence escalated. The police, who were outnumbered 50-1, were being incessantly beaten by rioters, some of whom used mace against the officers. They desperately called for external back-up to deal with the rioters. Unfortunately, this back-up would not come for hours, leaving 150 police officers injured that day.
They began to beat me with their fists and what felt like hard metal objects. […] I was electrocuted, again and again and again with a taser.
Michael Fanone of the Washington Police Department
Trump’s advisors urged him to take action. Many rioters had breached the Senate Chambers and the offices of many representatives, including Pelosi. Kevin McCarthy, House Republican Leader, many Fox Reporters and even his own son, Donald Jr, called for Trump to address the rioters. However, a response from Trump did not come for many hours. Only at 4 pm, 3 hours after the breach of the western barriers did Trump address the rioters on Twitter via a video.
We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now.
Trump’s video on Twitter
Police eventually began securing the Capitol building around the time of Trump’s video. Eventually, the National Guard stepped in and the building was considered secure by 8pm, EST. One Police Officer died on the 7th, due to injuries he sustained during the riot. Due to trauma from the incident, another police officer died of a stroke whilst two others committed suicide. Donald Trump announced that he would not be attending Biden’s inauguration on January 20th, before his social media was deactivated by their respective companies. On January 13th, the House of Representatives announced they were trying Trump to impeach him for a second time due to the insurrection, making him the only president ever to be put on trial for impeachment twice. However, he was acquitted, allowing him to run for President again in 2024.
Many consider this event to be the greatest threat to American Democracy since the Civil War. America was so close to losing a key part of itself, the freedom of the people. Some thought that other things were planned beyond convincing the House to change their mind. Zip-ties were spotted and a set of gallows were built outside the Capitol. Were they perhaps planning on taking hostages or, even worse, killing members of the House?
Naturally, with events of this scale and threat, many hypothetical questions arise. What if Trump had chosen different words? What if more people had arrived at the Capitol? What if the National Guard never arrived? Thankfully, such events never occurred and democracy has still remained a fundamental part of America thanks to the efforts of the brave people that day, who put their life on the line defending that building.