U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is about to return to the White House, and his proposals on immigration, taxes and trade have sparked heated discussions.
With two weeks to go before he returns to one of the world’s most powerful political positions, Trump is still angry about past events and has devised an attack plan against his political opponents, critics and their 2020 election defeat.
Much of his remarks focused on the events of January 6, 2021, when a mob that supported him stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification process for the 2020 election results. And this Monday is the fourth anniversary of the riots.
On December 22, 2024, in a speech to his supporters, Trump specifically attacked the special commission of inquiry established by the U.S. Congress for the “January 6 Incident” – which investigates Trump’s actions before, during and after the riots.
Trump told the audience that “what this unelected committee of political thugs is doing is illegal.”
But Trump’s focus on the “January 6 incident” is not limited to his critics. He also promised a full pardon for the mob involved in the violent attack on the Capitol — an incident that many of his critics have called a “rebellion.”
So, what day is January 6th? How many people have been charged with rioting? How does Trump use his presidential power to release those convicted? We will address these and more in this short explanation below.
What day is January 6, 2021?
After losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, Trump vigorously publicized the false accusations he made, saying the election was “rigged” and stole the fruits of his victory through massive fraud.
Its efforts have gone beyond rhetoric and include developing a plan to replace officials who vote in the Electoral College based on popular vote results in their respective states with a group of pro-Trump electors.
On January 6, 2021, Trump held a rally in Washington, D.C., to criticize the election results and urge his supporters to “fight to the death.”
“When you find out that someone is fraudulent, you can follow very different rules. ”
Trump ended his speech by urging his followers to march to the Capitol as Congress meets to certify the election results and “make your voices heard peacefully and patriotically.”
在接下来的几个小时内，一群特朗普的支持者（其中一些人持枪）袭击了试图阻止人群的警察，并冲进国会大楼，以试图阻止特朗普选举失败的结果得到认证。
其中一名暴徒阿什利·巴比特在试图闯入众议院时被一名警察开枪击毙。
有多少人因这场骚乱而受到指控？
根据美国司法部提供的最新数据，截至2024年8月6日，已有超过1488人因袭击国会大厦而面临刑事指控。
这些数字包含来自全部50个州和华盛顿特区首都的人员。约有547名被告被指控袭击、抵抗或妨碍官员或政府雇员，其中163人被指控使用致命武器发动袭击。
特朗普对参与者说了些什么？
Trump characterized those charged and imprisoned for their actions in the “January 6 incident” as victims of political persecution, calling them “patriots” and “political prisoners,” and promised to use presidential pardon powers to release them from prison when they returned to the White House.
In a social media post in March, Trump said that one of his top actions as president was to “release the hostages wrongfully imprisoned for the events of January 6th!” ”
What did Trump say to politicians who criticized his role in the “January 6 incident”?
Trump has taken a less forgiving approach to his political opponents who oversaw his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and criticized his actions in the “Jan. 6 incident.”
In July last year, Trump shared a post on his social media site “Truth Social” claiming that former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney should face a “military court” televised trial for “treason,” and Liz Cheney was one of two Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives investigating the January 6 incident and Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results.
In another post, Trump shared a photo of 15 U.S. lawmakers, including members of the “January 6 Incident” investigation, and said that it was they who “should go to jail” rather than Trump’s former strategic adviser Steve Bannon, who was sentenced to four months in prison in 2024 for ignoring a congressional subpoena for an investigation into the “January 6 Incident.”
What do Americans think of the “January 6 incident”?
In December 2023, a poll conducted jointly by the Washington Post and the University of Maryland found that about 55% of American adults believe that the “January 6 incident” is an attack on American democracy and should not be “forgotten.”
But Republican voters are unlikely to agree with this view, and the poll shows that more than two-thirds of Republican voters still believe Biden’s election in 2020 is illegal. Republican voters are also more likely to believe that Trump is not responsible for the violence on January 6, 2021 — only 14% of them believe he is responsible, compared to 53% of all American adults.
Why is this important?
While most Americans still have a negative view of the “January 6 incident” and Trump’s role in the event, these negative sentiments have not stopped Trump from defeating his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris in the 2024 US election.
Now, as Trump prepares to return to the White House, some believe that Trump will continue to insist on seeing himself as the real winner of the 2020 U.S. election and have expressed a desire to prosecute his political opponents, suggesting that he will pursue a more vindictive and anti-democratic agenda than his first presidency.