A year and a half later, a parliamentary commission presents its first conclusions on Thursday, supposed to demonstrate the responsibility of the former president in this attack.
Throwback to that cold day in January, when American democracy shook.
– 7 a.m., pro-Trumps in Washington –
Armed with Trump 2020 flags and wearing red “Make America Great Again” caps, tens of thousands of supporters of Donald Trump, convinced that the election lost by the Republican billionaire is marred by fraud, flock to Washington in the early hours of the day.
Coming from all over the United States, sometimes in whole buses, they cross the capital, a deeply democratic city, where the windows of most shops and buildings in the city center have been barricaded, for fear of overflows.
They converge on an esplanade near the White House, where Donald Trump must speak in the middle of the day. The Republican warned, the day will be “crazy”.
– 11:57 am: Trump on stage –
The American president arrives on stage under a sky full of heavy clouds.
“We will never give up. We will never concede,” he promises, in a serious tone. “We will never take back our country by being weak. (…) You must be strong”.
The crowd gathered in freezing cold is galvanized.
Donald Trump relies on his vice-president, whom he calls on not to endorse Joe Biden’s victory during the extraordinary session of Congress, which this faithful among the faithful must chair.
In conclusion of his speech, he launches: “We walk towards the Capitol”. His supporters comply.
– 1:02 p.m., Mike Pence’s letter –
At the same time, the parliamentarians of the two chambers begin the procedure of certification of the results of the presidential election.
Just before the start of the meeting, Mike Pence said in a letter that he would not oppose it, according to him, this right belonged to elected officials.
The leader of the Republican senators, Mitch McConnell, yet a supporter of Donald Trump during his mandate, warns his colleagues, evoking a “deadly” risk for democracy.
But from the start of the session, Republicans raised objections to the results of the election in the state of Arizona.
– 2:00 p.m., protesters in the Capitol –
Meanwhile, pro-Trump protesters begin to crowd around Congress. Annex buildings are evacuated while some force the dams of the police. The certification session is interrupted and the two rooms are placed in confinement.
Tear gas is fired into the rotunda of the Capitol, police draw their weapons. Now-famous images of a shirtless man with buffalo horns wandering the halls of Congress, another setting foot on Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s desk, are circulating around the world.
A demonstrator who tried to slip into the hemicycle through a broken window was shot dead. An extremist and conspiratorial activist for some, a patriotic martyr for others, Ashli Babbitt alone symbolized the deep political fault line that divided the United States after “January 6”.
– 14H24, tweets et SMS –
While the vice president and elected congressmen are evacuated from the chaos of the Capitol, Donald Trump is annoyed on Twitter that Mike Pence did not “have the courage to do what was necessary to protect the country”.
The president follows the events on television in a room next to the Oval Office. Elected Republicans, conservative celebrities implore his chief of staff Mark Meadows to push him to calm the crowd, according to text messages revealed by the parliamentary committee.
“Mark, the president must tell the people on Capitol Hill to go home at all costs,” Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham wrote in a 2:32 p.m. text message.
“He must condemn this shit as soon as possible,” warned the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., in another message at 2:53 p.m.
– 4:17 p.m., Trump: “Go home” –
At 4:17 p.m., Donald Trump finally publishes a video on his Twitter account.
“I know your pain, I know your pain,” he assures his supporters from the White House gardens.
“This election was stolen from us,” reiterates the president, without proof. “But we have to go home now.” “Come home, we love you, you are unique”.
– 6:30 p.m., return to calm –
At 6:00 p.m., a curfew decreed by the mayor of Washington comes into effect. The demonstrators still on the spot are dispersed by the police. Thirty minutes later, an official announces that the Capitol is secure again.
At 8:06 p.m., the Congress resumes session.
From the hemicycle where Trumpists paraded a few hours earlier, Mike Pence promises that “those who sowed discord” did not “win”.
At 3:42 a.m., Joe Biden’s election is officially certified.
