Feminist science fiction

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Feminist science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction (abbreviated "SF") focused on such feminist themes as: gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics, reproduction, and environment. Feminist SF is political because of its tendency to critique the dominant culture. Some of the most notable feminist science fiction works have illustrated these themes using utopias to explore a society in which gender differences or gender power imbalances do not exist, or dystopias to explore worlds in which gender inequalities are intensified, thus asserting a need for feminist work to continue.

Science fiction and fantasy serve as important vehicles for feminist thought, particularly as bridges between theory and practice. No other genres so actively invite representations of the ultimate goals of feminism: worlds free of sexism, worlds in which women's contributions (to science) are recognized and valued, worlds that explore the diversity of women's desire and sexuality, and worlds that move beyond gender.

— Elyce Rae Helford

History

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818)

Feminist science fiction (SF) distinguishes between female SF authors and feminist SF authors. Both female and feminist SF authors are historically significant to the feminist SF subgenre, as female writers have increased women's visibility and perspectives in SF literary traditions, while the feminist writers have foregrounded political themes and tropes in their works. Because distinctions between female and feminist can be blurry, whether a work is considered feminist can be debatable, but there are generally agreed-upon canonical texts, which help define the subgenre.

Early modern England

As early as the English Restoration, female authors were using themes of SF and imagined futures to explore women's issues, roles, and place in society. This can be seen as early as 1666 in Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World, in which she describes a utopian kingdom ruled by an empress. This foundational work has garnered attention from some feminist critics, such as Dale Spender, who considered this a forerunner of the science fiction genre, more generally. Another early female writer of science fiction was Mary Shelley. Her novel Frankenstein (1818) dealt with the asexual creation of new life, and has been considered by some a reimagining of the Adam and Eve story.

First-wave feminism (suffrage)

Women writers involved in the utopian literature movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries could be considered the first feminist SF authors. Their texts, emerging during the first-wave feminist movement, often addressed issues of sexism through imagining different worlds that challenged gender expectations. In 1881, Mizora: A Prophecy described a women-only world with technological innovations such as parthenogenesis, videophones, and artificial meat.

It was closely followed by other feminist utopian works, such as Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett's New Amazonia: A Foretaste of the Future (1889). In 1892, poet and abolitionist Frances Harper published Iola Leroy, one of the first novels by an African American woman. Set during the antebellum South, it follows the life of a mixed race woman with mostly white ancestry and records the hopes of many African Americans for social equality—of race and gender—during Reconstruction. Unveiling a Parallel (1893) features a male protagonist who takes an "aeroplane" to Mars, visiting two different "Marsian" societies; in both, there is equality between men and women. In one, Paleveria, women have adopted the negative characteristics of men; in Caskia, the other, gender equality "has made both sexes kind, loving, and generous." Two American Populists, A.O. Grigsby and Mary P. Lowe, published NEQUA or The Problem of the Ages (1900), which explores issues of gender norms and posited structural inequality. This recently rediscovered novel displays familiar feminist SF conventions: a heroine narrator who masquerades as a man, the exploration of sexist mores, and the description of a future hollow earth society (like Mizora) where women are equal.

The Sultana's Dream (1905), by Bengali Muslim feminist Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain, engages with the limited role of women in colonial India. Through depicting a gender-reversed purdah in an alternate technologically futuristic world, Hussain's book has been described as illustrating the potential for cultural insights through role reversals early on in the subgenre's formation. In the utopian novel Beatrice the Sixteenth (1909), transgender writer Irene Clyde creates a world where gender is no longer recognized and the story itself is told without the use of gendered nouns. Along these same lines, Charlotte Perkins Gilman explores and critiques the expectations of women and men by creating a single-sex world in Herland (1915), possibly the most well-known of the early feminist SF and utopian novels.

Among the francophones, Renée Gouraud d'Ablancourt [fr] published in 1909 Vega la magicienne, depicting L'Oiselle, a winged superheroine and the first of the francophone superhero series.

Between the wars

During the 1920s and 1930s, many popular pulp science fiction magazines exaggerated views of masculinity and featured portrayals of women that were perceived as sexist. These views would be subtly satirized by Stella Gibbons in Cold Comfort Farm (1932) and much later by Margaret Atwood in The Blind Assassin (2000). As early as 1920, however, women writers of this time, such as Clare Winger Harris ("The Runaway World," 1926) and Gertrude Barrows Bennett (Claimed, 1920), published science fiction stories written from female perspectives and occasionally dealt with gender and sexuality based topics.

John Wyndham, writing under his early pen-name of John Beynon Harris, was a rare pulp writer to include female leads in stories such as The Venus Adventure (Wonder Stories, 1932), in which a mixed crew travel to Venus. The story opens in a future in which women are no longer enslaved by pregnancy and childbirth thanks to artificial incubators, which are opposed by a religious minority. Women have used this freedom to enter professions including chemistry. Wyndham's outlook was so rare that in a serialisation of his novel Stowaway to Mars, one magazine editor "corrected" the name of the central character Joan to John. Wyndham then had to write them a new final instalment to replace the conclusion in which Joan fell in love and became pregnant. 

Post World War II

The Post-WWII and Cold War eras were a pivotal and often overlooked period in feminist SF history. During this time, female authors utilized the SF genre to assess critically the rapidly changing social, cultural, and technological landscape. Women SF authors during the post-WWII and Cold War time periods directly engage in the exploration of the impacts of science and technology on women and their families, which was a focal point in the public consciousness during the 1950s and 1960s. These female SF authors, often published in SF magazines such as The Avalonian, Astounding, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Galaxy, which were open to new stories and authors that pushed the boundaries of form and content.

At the beginning of the Cold War, economic restructuring, technological advancements, new domestic technologies (washing machines, electric appliances), increased economic mobility of an emerging middle class, and an emphasis on consumptive practices, carved out a new technological domestic sphere where women were circumscribed to a new job description – the professional housewife. Published feminist SF stories were told from the perspectives of women (characters and authors) who often identified within traditional roles of housewives or homemakers, a subversive act in many ways given the traditionally male-centered nature of the SF genre and society during that time.

In Galactic Suburbia, author Lisa Yaszek recovers many women SF authors of the post-WWII era such as Judith Merril, author of "That Only a Mother" (1948), "Daughters of Earth" (1952), "Project Nursemaid" (1955), "The Lady Was a Tramp" (1957); Alice Eleanor Jones "Life, Incorporated" (1955), "The Happy Clown" (1955), "Recruiting Officer" (1955); and Shirley Jackson "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts" (1955) and "The Omen" (1958). These authors often blurred the boundaries of feminist SF fiction and feminist speculative fiction, but their work laid substantive foundations for second-wave feminist SF authors to directly engage with the feminist project. "Simply put, women turned to SF in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s because it provided them with growing audiences for fiction that was both socially engaged and aesthetically innovative."

Second-wave feminism

By the 1960s, science fiction was combining sensationalism with political and technological critiques of society. With the advent of second-wave feminism, women's roles were questioned in this "subversive, mind expanding genre". Three notable texts of this period are Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) and Joanna Russ's The Female Man (1970). Each highlights what the authors believe to be the socially constructed aspects of gender roles by creating worlds with genderless societies. Two of these authors were pioneers in feminist criticism of science fiction during the 1960s and 1970s through essays collected in The Language of the Night (Le Guin, 1979) and How To Suppress Women's Writing (Russ, 1983). Also of note, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time (1962), written for children and teens, features a 13-year-old girl protagonist, Meg Murry, whose mother, Mrs. Murry, is a scientist with degrees in biology and bacteriology. L'Engle's novel is decidedly science fiction, feminist, and deeply Christian, and the first of her series, The Time Quintet. Meg's adventures to other planets, galaxies, and dimensions are aided in Wrinkle by three ancient beings, Mrs What, Mrs Which, and Mrs Who who "tesser" to travel vast distances. A Wrinkle in Time was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1963 and has never been out of print. Men also contributed literature to feminist science fiction. Prominently, Samuel R. Delany's short story, "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" (1968), which won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1970, follows the life of a gay man that includes themes involving sadomasochism, gender, significance of language, and when high and low society encounter one another, while his novel Babel-17 has an autistic woman of colour as its primary hero and protagonist. Octavia Butler's Kindred (1979) tells the story of an African American woman living in the United States in 1979 who uncontrollably time travels to the antebellum South. The novel poses complicated questions about the nature of sexuality, gender, and race when the present faces the past.

The Demon Breed is a 1968 science fiction novel by James H. Schmitz in which the female main character, Nyles Etland, armed only with intelligence and intimate knowledge of her home environment, allies and science, intimidated an alien species who had intended to invade. Schmitz, who still commands a cult audience half a century after his death, dealt almost exclusively in competent and intelligent female main characters in dozens of novels and short stories.

1980s onwards

Feminist science fiction continues on into the 1980s with Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985), a dystopic tale of a theocratic society in which women have been systematically stripped of all liberty. The book was motivated by fear of potential retrogressive effects on women's rights. Sheri S. Tepper is perhaps best known for her series The True Game, which explore the Lands of the True Game, a portion of a planet explored by humanity somewhere in the future. In November 2015, she received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement for this series. Tepper has written under several pseudonyms, including A. J. Orde, E. E. Horlak, and B. J. Oliphant. Carol Emshwiller is another feminist SF author whose best known works are Carmen Dog (1988), The Mount (2002), and Mister Boots (2005). Emshwiller had also been writing SF for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction since 1974. She won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2005 for her novel The Mount (2002). This novel explores the prey/predator mentality through an alien race. Another author of the 1980s, Pamela Sargent has written the "Seed Series", which included Earthseed, Farseed, and Seed Seeker (1983–2010), the "Venus Series" about the terraforming of Venus, which includes Venus of Dreams, Venus of Shadows, and Child of Venus (1986–2001), and The Shore of Women (1986). Sargent is also the 2012 winner of the Pilgrim Award for lifetime contributions to SF/F studies. Lois McMaster Bujold has won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for her novella The Mountains of Mourning, which is part of her series the "Vorkosigan Saga" (1986–2012). This saga includes points of view from a number of minority characters, and is also highly concerned with medical ethics, identity, and sexual reproduction.

More recent science fiction authors illuminate what they contend are injustices that are still prevalent. At the time of the LA Riots, Japanese-American writer Cynthia Kadohata's work In the Heart of the Valley of Love (1992) was published. Her story, set in the year 2052, examines tensions between two groups as defined as the "haves" and the "have-nots" and is written as seen through the eyes of a nineteen-year-old girl who is of Asian and African descent. Nalo Hopkinson's Falling in Love With Hominids (2015) is a collection of her short stories whose subjects range from an historical fantasy involving colonialism in the Caribbean, to age manipulation, to ethnic diversity in the land of Faerie, among others.

In the early 1990s, a new award opportunity for feminist SF authors was created. The James Tiptree, Jr. Award is an annual literary prize for works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore one's understanding of gender (Alice Sheldon was a female writer who published science fiction under the Tiptree pen name). Science fiction authors Pat Murphy and Karen Joy Fowler initiated this subsequent discussion at WisCon in February 1991. The authors' publishing in feminist SF after 1991 were now eligible for an award named after one of the genre's beloved authors. Karen Joy Fowler herself is considered a feminist SF writer for her short stories, such as "What I Didn't See", for which she received the Nebula Award in 2004. This story is an homage to Sheldon, and describes a gorilla hunting expedition in Africa. Pat Murphy won a number of awards for her feminist SF novels as well, including her second novel The Falling Woman (1986), a tale of personal conflict and visionary experiences set during an archaeological field study for which she won the Nebula Award in 1988. She won another Nebula Award in the same year for her story "Rachel in Love". Her short story collection, Points of Departure (1990) won the Philip K. Dick Award, and her 1990 novella "Bones" won the 1991 World Fantasy Award.

Other winners of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award include "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell (1996), "Black Wine" by Candas Jane Dorsey (1997), Redwood and Wildfire by Andrea Hairston (2011), "The Carhullan Army" by Sarah Hall (2007), Ammonite by Nicola Griffith (1993), and "The Conqueror's Child" by Suzy McKee Charnas (1999). All of these authors have had an important impact on the SF world by adding a feminist perspective to the traditionally male genre.

Eileen Gunn's science fiction short story "Coming to Terms" received the Nebula Award (2004) in the United States and the Sense of Gender Award (2007) in Japan, and has been nominated twice each for the Hugo Award, Philip K. Dick Award and World Fantasy Award, and short-listed for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. Her most popular anthology of short stories is Questionable Practices, which includes stories "Up the Fire Road" and "Chop Wood, Carry Water". She also edited "The WisCon Chronicles 2: Provocative Essays on Feminism, Race, Revolution, and the Future" with L. Timmel Duchamp. Duchamp has been known in the feminist SF community for her first novel Alanya to Alanya (2005), the first of a series of five titled "The Marq'ssan Cycle". Alanya to Alanya is set on a near-future earth controlled by a male-dominated ruling class patterned loosely after the corporate world of today. Duchamp has also published a number of short stories, and is an editor for Aqueduct Press. Lisa Goldstein is another well respected feminist sf author. The novelette Dark Rooms (2007) is one of her better known works, and another one of her novels, The Uncertain Places, won the Mythopoeic Award for Best Adult Novel in 2012.

Recurrent themes

Works of feminist science fiction are often similar in the goals they work towards as well as the subjects and plotlines they focus on in order to achieve those goals. Feminist science fiction is science fiction that carries across feminist ideals and the promotion of societal values such as gender equality, and the elimination of patriarchal oppression. Feminist science fiction works often present tropes that are recurrent across science fiction with an emphasis on gender relations and gender roles. Many elements of science fiction, such as cyborgs and implants, as well as utopias and dystopias, are given context in a gendered environment, providing a real contrast with present-day gender relations while remaining a work of science fiction.

Utopian and dystopian societies

Representations of utopian and dystopian societies in feminist science fiction place an increased emphasis on gender roles while countering the anti-utopian philosophies of the 20th century. Male philosophers such as John Rawls, Isaiah Berlin, and Michael Oakeshott often criticize the idea of utopia, theorizing that it would be impossible to establish a utopia without violence and hegemony. Many male authored works of science fiction as well as threads of philosophical utopian thought dismiss utopias as something unattainable, whereas in feminist science fiction, utopian society is often presented as something both achievable and desirable.

Anti-utopian philosophies and feminist science fiction come to odds in the possibility of achieving utopia. In "Rehabilitating Utopia: Feminist Science Fiction and Finding the Ideal", an article published in Contemporary Justice Review, philosophers against the dream of utopia argue that "First is the expectation that utopia justifies violence, second is the expectation that utopia collapses individual desires into one communal norm, and third is the expectation that utopia mandates a robotic focus on problem-solving." In feminist science fiction, utopias are often realized through a communal want for an ideal society. One such novel is summarized in the aforementioned article, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's novel Herland, in which "Gilman perfectly captures the utopian impulse that all problems are solvable. She establishes a society where every consideration about a question aims for the rational answer." Gilman's utopia is presented as something attainable and achievable without conflict, neither enabling violence nor extinguishing individualism.

In the Parable series by feminist science fiction novelist Octavia Butler, anti-utopian philosophies are criticized via a dystopian setting. In the first novel, Parable of the Sower, following the destruction of her home and family, Lauren Olamina, one of many who live in a dystopian, ungoverned society, seeks to form her own utopian religion entitled 'Earthseed'. Olamina's utopian creation does not justify the use of violence as a means, no matter how expedient, to justify the end, achieving utopia, no matter how desirable. Yet we witness that she cannot avoid violence, as it results from little more than promulgating ideas different from those held by the majority of those living within the current social structure, however disorganized and ungoverned that social structure may be. Butler posits that utopian society can never be achieved as an entity entirely separate from the outside world, one of the more commonly held beliefs about conditions necessary to achieve utopia. Olamina's, and Butler's, utopia is envisioned as a community with a shared vision that is not forced on all within it.

One common trend in feminist science fiction utopias is the existence of utopian worlds as single-gendered – most commonly female, an early example being Emília Freitas’s 1899 novel A Rainha do Ignoto. In literary works female utopias are portrayed as free of conflict, and intentionally free of men. The single gendered utopias of female science fiction are free of the conflicts that feminism aims to eliminate, such as patriarchal oppression and the gender inequality inherent in patriarchal society. In a statement about these single gendered utopias, Joanna Russ, author of The Female Man , theorized that male-only societies were not written because in patriarchal society, male oppression is not as pressing an issue as is female oppression.

Utopia as an ideal to strive for is not a concept wholly limited to feminist science fiction, however many non-feminist science fiction works often dismiss utopia as an unachievable goal, and as such, believe that pursuits for utopia should be considered dangerous and barren. Anti-utopian theory focuses on the 'how' in the transition from present society to a utopian future. In feminist science fiction, the achievement of a utopian future depends on the ability to recognize the need for improvement and the perseverance to overcome the obstacles present in creating a utopian society.

Representation of women

Perhaps the most obvious attraction of science fiction to women writers – feminist or not – is the possibilities it offers for the creation of a female hero. The demands of realism in the contemporary or historical novel set limits which do not bind the universes available to science fiction. Although the history of science fiction reveals few heroic, realistic, or even original images of women, the genre had a potential recognized by the women writers drawn to it in the 1960s and 1970s. Before this time, the appeal for women writers was not that great. The impact of feminism on the science fiction field can be observed not only in science fiction texts themselves, but also on the development of feminist approaches to science fiction criticism and history, as well as conversations and debates in the science fiction community. One of the main debates is about the representation of women in science fiction.

In her article "Redefining Women's Power through Feminist Science Fiction", Maria DeRose suggests that, "One of the great early socialists said that the status of women in a society is a pretty reliable index of the degree of civilization of that society. If this is true, then the very low status of women in science fiction should make us ponder about whether science fiction is civilized at all". The women's movement has made most of us conscious of the fact that Science Fiction has totally ignored women. This "lack of appreciation" is the main reason that women are rebelling and actively fighting to be noticed in the field anyway.

Virginia Wolf relates to this aspect of feminist science fiction in the article "Feminist Criticism and Science Fiction for Children". As she discusses the scarcity of women in the field, she states, "During the first period, that of the nineteenth century, apparently only two women wrote Science Fiction, Mary Shelley and Rhoda Broughton," and continues, "In the early twentieth century, a few women were successful Science Fiction writers". But, "The times changed. Repression gave way to questioning and outright rebellion, and in the Science Fiction of the 1960s stylistic innovations and new concerns emerged 'Many of their stories, instead of dealing with the traditional hardware of science fiction, concentrated on the effects that different societies or perceptions would have on individual characters'". Andre Norton, a semi-well known analyst of Science fiction argues along these lines as well. As Norton explored one or more novels she came across, she realized that the creation of characters and how they are shown is a clear connection to the real world situation. From here, she goes in depth of characters in these feminist novels and relates them to the real world. She concludes here article along these lines. She wanted to get the idea out that feminists have a way to get their voice out there. Now, all their works are famous/ popular enough for their ideas to be let out. Virginia Wolf can attest to this fact. She introduced the idea that women were not represented well in the field till the early 1900s and added to the fact by stating, "Women are not represented well in Science Fiction".

Individual characters, as we come to know, have their own perception and observation of their surroundings. Characters in novels such as The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale are fully aware of the situation at hand and their role in society. This idea is a continuation of the argument presented by Andre Norton. Wolf argues the same point in her analysis of Le Guin's writing, who has many contributions to the works of feminist Science Fiction. Wolf argues, "What matters to Le Guin is not what people look like or how they behave but whether or not they have choice and whether or not they receive respect for who they are and what they do rather than on the basis of sex. Feminism is for her not a matter of how many women (or characters in Science Fiction) are housewives but a part of our hope for survival, which she believes lies in the search for balance and integration". This stirs up many questions about equality (a debate which has been going on for many years) but nobody seems to have an answer. In this continual search for equality, many characters find themselves asking the same question: "Is Gender Necessary" (which is, coincidentally, one of Le Guin's novels and also another problem arising from gender biases). Robin Roberts, an American literary historian, addresses the link of these characters and what that means for our society today. Roberts believes that men and women would like to be equal, but are not equal. They should be fighting the same battle when in fact they are fighting each other. She also debates that gender equality has been a problem in every reach of feminism, not just in feminist science fiction. Wolf also tackles this problem, "As she explains in "Is Gender Necessary?", The Left Hand of Darkness convinced her that if men and women were completely and genuinely equal in their social roles, equal legally and economically, equal in freedom, in responsibility, and in self-esteem, ... our central problem would not be the one it is now: the problem of exploitation—exploitation of the woman, of the weak, of the earth' (p. 159)". Science fiction criticism has come a long way from its defensive desire to create a canon. All of these authors demonstrate that science fiction criticism tackles the same questions as other literary criticism: race, gender, and the politics of Feminism itself. Wolf believes that evaluating primarily American texts, written over the past one hundred and twenty years, these critics locate science fiction's merits in its speculative possibilities. At the same time, however, all note that the texts they analyze reflect the issues and concerns of the historical period in which the literature was written. DeRose introduces her article with, in effect, the same argument. She says, "the power of women in Science Fiction has greatly depreciated in the past few years".

Gender identity

Feminist science fiction offers authors the opportunity to imagine worlds and futures in which women are not bound by the standards, rules, and roles that exist in reality. Rather, the genre creates a space in which the gender binary might be troubled and different sexualities may be explored.

As Anna Gilarek explains, issues of gender have been a part of feminist discourse throughout the feminist movement, and the work of authors such as Joanna Russ and Marge Piercy explore and expose gender based oppression. Gilarek outlines two approaches to social critique via Feminist SF: the use of fantastical elements such as "invented worlds, planets, moons, and lands", used to call attention to the ills of society by exaggerating them, or a more straightforward approach, "relying on realist techniques to convey the message about the deficiencies of our world and its social organization, in particular the continued inequality of women". There are many examples of redefined gender roles and gender identity found in Feminist SF, ranging from the inversion of gendered oppression to the amplification of gender stereotypes and tropes. In the short story "The Matter of Seggri", by Ursula Le Guin, traditional gender roles are completely swapped. Men are relegated to roles of athletes and prostitutes while women control the means of production and have exclusive access to education. In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, gendered oppression is exaggerated in a dystopian society in which women's rights are stripped away and fertile women are relegated to the roles of handmaids who will bear children to further the human race. New books continue the dystopian theme of women living in a society which conforms to the wishes of men, at the expense of women's rights and well-being, such as in Louise O'Neill's young adult novel Only Ever Yours. In this work, females are no longer born naturally but are genetically designed before birth to conform to the physical desires of men, then placed in a school in which they are taught not to think (they are never taught to read), and to focus on appearance until they are rated by beauty on a scale at age sixteen, with the top ten becoming the brides of elite men, the middle ten forced into concubinage, and the bottom ten forced to continue their lives as instructors at the school in very humiliating circumstances. At age forty, the women are euthanized. In the post-apocalyptic novel, Gather the Daughters, by Jennie Melamed, females living in an island society are sexually exploited from the time they are girls, are forced to marry at adolescence, and after they become grandmothers must commit suicide.

Over the decades, SF and feminist SF authors have taken different approaches to criticizing gender and gendered society. Helen Merrick outlines the transition from what Joanna Russ describes as the "Battle of the Sexes" tradition to a more egalitarian or androgynous approach. Also known as the "Dominant Woman" stories, the "Battle of the Sexes" stories often present matriarchal societies in which women have overcome their patriarchal oppressors and have achieved dominance. These stories are representative of an anxiety that perceives women's power as a threat to masculinity and the heterosexual norm. As Merrick explains, "And whilst they may at least hint at the vision of a more equal gendered social order, this possibility is undermined by figuring female desire for greater equality in terms of a (stereotypical) masculine drive for power and domination." Examples of these types of stories, written in the 1920s and 30s through the 50s, include Francis Steven's "Friend Island" and Margaret Rupert's "Via the Hewitt Ray"; in 1978, Marion Zimmer Bradley released The Ruins of Isis, a novel about a futuristic matriarchy on a human colony planet where the men are extremely oppressed.

In the 1960s and 1970s, feminist SF authors shifted from the "Battle of the Sexes" writing more egalitarian stories and stories that sought to make the feminine more visible. Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness portrayed an androgynous society in which a world without gender could be imagined. In James Tiptree Jr.'s short story "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?", women are able to be seen in their full humanity due to the absence of men in a post-apocalyptic society. Joanna Russ's works, including "When it Changed" and The Female Man are other examples of exploring femininity and a "deconstruction of the acceptable, liberal 'whole' woman towards a multiple, shifting postmodernist sense of female 'selfhood'".

Comic books and graphic novels

Feminist science fiction is evidenced in the globally popular mediums of comic books, manga, and graphic novels. One of the first appearances of a strong female character was that of the superhero Wonder Woman, co-created by husband and wife team William Moulton Marston and Elizabeth Holloway Marston. In December 1941, Wonder Woman came to life on the pages of All Star Comics, and in the intervening years has been reincarnated in from animated TV series to live-action films, with significant cultural impact. By the early 1960s, Marvel Comics already contained some strong female characters, although they often suffered from stereotypical female weakness such as fainting after intense exertion. By the 1970s and 1980s, true female heroes started to emerge on the pages of comics. This was helped by the emergence of self-identified feminist writers including Ann Nocenti, Linda Fite, and Barbara Kesel. As female visibility in comics increased, the "fainting heroine" type began to fade into the past. However, some female comic book writers, such as Gail Simone, believe that female characters are still relegated to plot devices (see Women in Refrigerators).

Feminism in science fiction shōjo manga has been a theme in the works of Moto Hagio among others, for whom the writings of Ursula K. Le Guin have been a major influence.

Film and television

Feminism has driven the creation of a considerable body of action-oriented science fiction with female protagonists: Wonder Woman (originally created in 1941) and The Bionic Woman during the time of the organized women's movement in the 1970s; Terminator 2: Judgment Day and the Alien tetralogy in the 1980s; and Xena, Warrior Princess, comic book character Red Sonja, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 2001 science fiction TV series Dark Angel featured a powerful female protagonist, with gender roles between her and the main male character generally reversed.

However, feminists have also created science fiction that directly engages with feminism beyond the creation of female action heroes. Television and film have offered opportunities for expressing new ideas about social structures and the ways feminists influence science. Feminist science fiction provides a means to challenge the norms of society and suggest new standards for how societies view gender. The genre also deals with male/female categories, showing how female roles can differ from feminine roles. Hence feminism influences the film industry by creating new ways of exploring and looking at masculinity/femininity and male/female roles. A contemporary example of feminist science fiction television can be found in Orphan Black, which deals with issues of reproductive justice, science, gender, and sexuality.

Fandom

By the 1970s, the science fiction community was confronting questions of feminism and sexism within science fiction culture itself. Multiple Hugo-winning fan writer and professor of literature Susan Wood and others organized the "feminist panel" at the 1976 World Science Fiction Convention against considerable resistance. Reactions to the appearance of feminists among fannish ranks led indirectly to the creation of A Women's APA and WisCon.

Feminist science fiction is sometimes taught at the university level to explore the role of social constructs in understanding gender.

Publications

In the 1970s, the first feminist science fiction publications were created. The most well-known are fanzines The Witch and the Chameleon (1974–1976) and Janus (1975–1980), which later became Aurora SF (Aurora Speculative Feminism) (1981–1987). Windhaven, A Journal of Feminist Science Fiction was published from 1977 to 1979 by Jessica Amanda Salmonson in Seattle. Special issues of magazines linked to science fiction meetings were also published at that moment, like the Khatru symposium's fanzine Women in Science Fiction in 1975.

Critical works

Femspec

Discipline	Feminist speculative fiction
Language	English
Edited by	Batya Weinbaum
Publication details
History	1999–present
Publisher	Cleveland State University (United States)
Frequency	Biannual
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4	Femspec
Indexing
ISSN	1523-4002
LCCN	sn99008204
OCLC no.	55471482
Links
Journal homepage Online archive

Femspec

Femspec is a feminist academic journal specializing in works that challenge gender through speculative genres, including science fiction, fantasy, magical realism, mythic explorations in poetry and post-modern fiction, and horror. There is a conscious multicultural focus of the journal, both in content and in the diverse makeup of its editorial group. The first issue came out in 1999 under the editorial direction of founder Batya Weinbaum, who is still the Editor-in-Chief. Femspec is still publishing as of 2021 and has brought over 1000 authors, critics and artists into print. Having lost their academic home in May 2003, they increasingly cross genres and print write-ups of all books and media received, as well as of events that feature creative works that imaginatively challenge gender such as intentional communities, performance events, and film festivals.

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On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of then-U.S. president Donald Trump, two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. They sought to keep Trump in power by occupying the Capitol and preventing a joint session of Congress counting the Electoral College votes to formalize the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. The attack was ultimately unsuccessful in preventing the certification of the election results. According to the House select committee investigating the incident, the attack was the culmination of a seven-part plan by Trump to overturn the election.

Within 36 hours, five people died: one was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, and three died of natural causes, including a police officer. Many people were injured, including 174 police officers. Four officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months. As of July 7, 2022, damages caused by attackers exceed $2.7 million.

Encouraged by Trump, on January 5 and 6 thousands of his supporters gathered in Washington, D.C., to support his false claims that the 2020 election had been "stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats" and to demand that then-Vice President Mike Pence and Congress reject Biden's victory. Starting at noon on January 6, at a "Save America" rally on the Ellipse, Trump gave a speech in which he repeated false claims of election irregularities and said, "If you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." As Congress began the electoral vote count, thousands of attendees, some armed, walked to the Capitol, with hundreds breaching police perimeters. Among the rioters were leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers militia groups, who conspired to use violence and interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.

More than 2,000 rioters entered the building, with many vandalizing and looting, including the offices of then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Congress members. Rioters also assaulted Capitol Police officers and reporters, and attempted to capture and harm lawmakers. A gallows was erected west of the Capitol, with rioters chanting to "Hang Mike Pence" after he rejected requests, from Trump and others, to use his authority to overturn the election results.

With building security breached, Capitol Police evacuated and locked down both chambers of Congress and several buildings in the Complex. Rioters occupied the empty Senate chamber while federal law enforcement officers defended the evacuated House floor. Pipe bombs were found at both the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters, and Molotov cocktails were discovered in a vehicle near the Capitol.

Trump resisted sending the National Guard to quell the mob. Later that afternoon, in a Twitter video, he reasserted the inaccurate claim that the election was "fraudulent", and told his supporters to "go home in peace". The Capitol was cleared of rioters by mid-evening, and the electoral vote count was resumed and completed by the early morning of January 7. Pence declared President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris victorious. Pressured by his cabinet, the threat of removal, and many resignations, Trump later conceded to an orderly transition of power in a televised statement.

A week after the attack, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection, making him the only U.S. president to be impeached twice. In February, after Trump had left office, the Senate voted 57–43 in favor of conviction, but fell short of the required two-thirds, resulting in his acquittal. Senate Republicans blocked a bill to create a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the attack, so the House instead approved a select investigation committee consisting of seven Democrats and two Republicans. They held nine televised public hearings on the attack in 2022, voted to subpoena Trump, and recommended that the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecute Trump. On August 1, 2023, following a special counsel investigation, Trump was indicted on four charges.

More than 1,200 people have been charged with federal crimes relating to the attack. As of December 2023, 728 defendants had pleaded guilty, while another 166 defendants were convicted at trial; a total of 745 defendants have been sentenced. Many participants in the attack were linked to far-right extremist groups or conspiratorial movements, including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and Three Percenters. Numerous plotters were convicted of seditious conspiracy, including Oath Keepers and Proud Boys members; the longest sentence to date was given to then-Proud Boy chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Background

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of the January 6 United States Capitol attack.

Attempts to overturn the presidential election

Main article: Attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election

President Donald Trump speaking at a campaign rally in Goodyear, Arizona, in October 2020

Joe Biden, of the Democratic Party, defeated incumbent Republican Party president Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Trump and other Republicans attempted to overturn the election, falsely claiming widespread voter fraud.

Trump's tweet shortly after polls had closed

Within hours after the closing of the polls, while votes were still being tabulated, Trump declared victory, demanding that further counting be halted. He began a campaign to subvert the election, through legal challenges and an extralegal effort. Ten days after the election, Trump's attorneys came to the conclusion that there was neither a factual foundation nor a valid legal argument for challenging the election results. Despite those analyses, Trump sought to overturn the results by filing at least sixty lawsuits, including two that came before the Supreme Court. Those actions sought to nullify election certifications and to void votes that had been cast for Biden. Those challenges were all rejected by the courts, for lack of evidence or the absence of legal standing. Trump's legal team, led by Sidney Powell, filed those lawsuits while knowing they had no factual basis or legal merit. In August 2021, Powell and other Trump attorneys were formally sanctioned for participating in "a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process... by filing baseless and frivolous lawsuits in order to undermine public confidence in the democratic process".

Trump then mounted a campaign to pressure Republican governors, secretaries of state, and state legislatures to nullify results by replacing slates of Biden electors with slates pledged to Trump, or by manufacturing evidence of fraud; Trump's role in the plot to use fake electors led to his being prosecuted in Michigan, Georgia, and in federal court. He further demanded that lawmakers investigate ostensible election "irregularities", such as by conducting signature matches of mailed-in ballots, disregarding any prior analytic efforts. Trump also personally made inquiries regarding the possibility of invoking martial law to "re-run" or reverse the election and appointing a special counsel to find instances of fraud, despite conclusions by federal and state officials that such cases were few and isolated or non-existent. Trump ultimately undertook neither step. Trump repeatedly urged Vice President Mike Pence to alter the results and to stop Biden from taking office. None of those actions would have been within Pence's constitutional powers as vice president and president of the Senate. Trump repeated this call in his rally speech on the morning of January 6.

Numerous scholars, historians, political scientists, and journalists have characterized these efforts to overturn the election as an attempted self-coup by Trump and an implementation of the "big lie". On July 16, 2023, Donald Trump was notified that he was officially a target in the Smith special counsel investigation. Trump attorney Sidney Powell would later plead guilty to conspiring to interfere with the election.

Planning of January 6 events

On December 18, four days after the Electoral College voted, Trump called for supporters to attend a rally before the January 6 Congressional vote count, writing on Twitter, "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!". On December 28, far-right activist Ali Alexander described collaboration with the Proud Boys and explained that the purpose of the January 6 event would be "to build momentum and pressure, and then on the day change hearts and minds of Congresspeoples [sic] who weren't yet decided or saw everyone outside and said, 'I can't be on the other side of that mob'". Alexander named three Republican members of the House as allies who were planning "something big": Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs and Mo Brooks. "We're the four guys who came up with a January 6 event", he said.

On December 23, 2020, Roger Stone's group Stop the Steal posted plans to "occupy just outside" the Capitol with promises to "escalate" if opposed by police. By January 1, Stone recorded a video for his "Stop The Steal Security Project" to raise funds "for the staging, the transportation and most importantly the security" of the event.

The event was largely funded by Trump donor Julie Jenkins Fancelli, the 72-year-old heiress to the Publix supermarket fortune, who budgeted $3 million for the event and spent at least $650,000. Fancelli's funding, via conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, was used to reserve the Ellipse. With Fancelli's funding, a robocall campaign was initiated, urging people to "march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal". Charlie Kirk, another Fancelli-funded activist, stated that his group had sent over eighty buses to the Capitol. Jones claimed that the Trump White House asked him to lead the march to the Capitol.

On January 2, Trump announced plans to speak at the "March to Save America" rally on January 6.  On January 4, Steve Bannon described himself being part of "the bloodless coup".

Seditious conspiracy by Oath Keepers and Proud Boys

Main article: Planning of the January 6 United States Capitol attack

On November 5, 2020, two days after the presidential election, leaders of the Oath Keepers began communicating about a "civil war". On November 9, the leaders held an online members-only video conference in which leader Stewart Rhodes outlined a plan to stop the transfer of power, including preparations for using force. The Oath Keepers planned to store "an arsenal" with a "Quick Reaction Force" (QRF) in nearby Alexandria, Virginia. The leaders planned to procure boat transportation so that bridge closures could not prevent their entry into D.C.

On December 12, about 200 members of the Proud Boys joined a march near Freedom Plaza and the Trump International Hotel while dressed in combat fatigues and ballistic vests and reportedly carrying helmets. In scuffles between protesters and counter-protesters, four people were stabbed and at least 23 were arrested.

On December 15, 2020, a photograph spread online of a Proud Boy wearing a variety of antisemitic, neo-fascist verbiage and imagery.

By December 15, Proud Boy members were being photographed wearing apparel featuring the antisemitic, Neo-Nazi slogan "6MWE". The acronym stands for "6 million wasn't enough", referring to the number of Jewish Holocaust victims. The slogan was accompanied by an Eagle and fasces symbol used by the Italian Fascists. The image, which spread on Twitter, prompted the Anti-Defamation League to declare that the "Proud Boys's Bigotry is on Full Display."

On December 19, Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs placed a call to Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio. On December 20, the Proud Boys leadership handpicked members to form a new chapter called the "Ministry of Self Defense", which would be in charge of "national rally planning". That day, one leader posted a message saying, "I am assuming most of the protest will be at the capital [sic] building given what's going on inside." The Proud Boys leadership began encouraging members to attend the January 6 event. Leaders used a crowdfunding website to raise money and purchase paramilitary equipment such as concealed tactical vests and radio equipment in preparation for the attack. Chapter leadership spent the days prior to, and the morning of, January 6 planning the attack. On December 29, leaders announced plans to be "incognito" on January 6, by not wearing their traditional black and yellow garb. On December 30, the leadership received a document titled "1776 Returns", which called for the occupation of "crucial buildings" on January 6 and argued for supporters to "Storm the Winter Palace" in an apparent reference to an attack on the Capitol. On January 3 and 4, Proud Boys leadership explicitly discussed "storming" the Capitol.

On January 3, Rhodes departed his home in Texas, having spent $6,000 on a rifle and other firearms equipment in Texas, and spending an additional $4,500 in Mississippi, enroute to D.C. On January 5, leaders began unloading weapons for the "QRF" in Alexandria. Leaders drove into D.C. on a "reconnaissance mission" before returning to their hotel in Virginia. On January 4, Tarrio was arrested by D.C. police in connection with a prior destruction-of-property charge. Fearing that the police would access Tarrio's messaging apps, leadership deleted the old group chat and created a new one, with one leader opining, "Well at least they won't get our boots on ground plans because we are one step ahead of them." Tarrio was released on January 5 and ordered to leave the city. Rather than immediately comply, he traveled to an underground parking garage to meet with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes.

Enrique Tarrio (center) and Stewart Rhodes (far right) participated in a January 5 meeting between the leaders of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, held in an underground parking garage.

The night of January 5, Proud Boys leaders divided members into teams, passed out radios, and programmed the radios to specific channels in preparation. Orders were issued to assemble at 10 a.m. at the Washington Monument. Leadership warned members to avoid police and not to drink in public. On January 6, about 100 plainclothes members assembled at the Washington Monument and were led to the Capitol to participate in the attack.

Predictions of violence

Main article: Predictions of violence ahead of the January 6 United States Capitol attack

The weeks preceding January 6 were filled with predictions of upcoming violence by Trump's supporters. The attack was later said to be "planned in plain sight", with extensive postings on social media calling for and even planning for violence on January 6. In response to widespread predictions of possible violence, D.C. food and lodging establishments with a history of being patronized by the Proud Boys announced temporary closures in an attempt to protect public safety, and the mayor advised residents to stay away from areas near the Mall that might see violence. Members of Congress interfaced with law enforcement to ensure preparations were being made for any upcoming violence.

Commentators had long feared that Trump might provoke violence after an electoral loss. For several weeks before January 6, there were over one million mentions of storming the Capitol on social media, including calls for violence against Congress, Pence, and the police. Many of the posters planned for violence before the event: some discussed how to avoid police on the streets, which tools to bring to help pry open doors, and how to smuggle weapons into the city. They discussed their perceived need to attack the police.

External image

Preliminary plan of the January 6 Capitol attack posted on December 28, 2020 A map of the Capitol complex and its underground tunnels was posted to TheDonald.win on December 28, 2020, and widely shared. The image came to the attention of the Norfolk field office of the FBI, which alerted higher authorities to the possibility of organized violence on January 6. In 2023, Congress would discuss the image in its report "Planned in Plain Sight" about the failures to adequately prepare for the attack despite extensive predictions of violence.

On December 28, 2020, a map was posted showing entrances and exits to the Capitol and the tunnels that connect it to nearby House and Senate office buildings. Perimeters were drawn in red, orange, and yellow designed to reflect their relative importance while black X's represented forces that would be "ready for action" if Congress tried to certify the 2020 presidential election. On January 1, the operator of an obscure website about tunnels under the Capitol noticed a huge spike in traffic to the site, prompting him to notify the FBI of a likely upcoming attack on the building.

From December 29 to January 5, the FBI and its field offices warned of armed protests at every state capitol and reported plans by Trump supporters that included violence. On December 30, 2020, one popular comment was posted, saying, "I'm thinking it will be literal war on that day. Where we'll storm offices and physically remove and even kill all the D.C. traitors and reclaim the country." That comment was highlighted in a January 2 article by The Daily Beast which reported protesters were discussing bringing guns to the District, breaking into federal buildings, and attacking law enforcement. In the days leading up to the attack, several organizations, including ones that monitor online extremism, issued warnings about the event.

On January 5, the media published stories about widespread predictions of violence, and D.C. mayor Bowser called for residents to avoid the downtown area where protesters would march. That day, members of Congress reached out to law enforcement charged with protecting the Capitol against possible upcoming violence and were assured that Capitol Police were prepared.

Three days before the Capitol attack, the Capitol Police intelligence unit circulated a 12-page internal memo warning that Trump supporters see the day of the Electoral College vote count "as the last opportunity to overturn the results of the presidential election" and could use violence against "Congress itself" on that date.

Law enforcement and National Guard preparations

Main article: Law enforcement response to the January 6 United States Capitol attack § Preparations for January 6

 

In January 2021, the Chain of Command to the D.C. National Guard led from Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump to the recently appointed Acting-Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, to Acting-Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy to General William Walker the commander of the District of Columbia National Guard.

On November 9, Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and replaced him with Christopher C. Miller as acting secretary. In response to the firing, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Gina Haspel privately told Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley that "we are on the way to a right-wing coup". On December 18, Miller unilaterally terminated the Department of Defense's transition to the incoming administration, falsely claiming it was a mutually-agreed pause for the holidays.

On January 2, Senator Mitt Romney contacted Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, predicting that reinforcements would be denied. Wrote Romney: "... a senior official at the Pentagon... reports that they are seeing very disturbing social media traffic regarding the protests planned on the 6th. There are calls to burn down your home, Mitch; to smuggle guns into DC, and to storm the Capitol. I hope that sufficient security plans are in place, but I am concerned that the instigator—the President—is the one who commands the reinforcements the DC and Capitol police might require."

On January 3, all ten living former defense secretaries released an open letter in which they expressed concerns about a potential military coup to overturn the election results, mentioning the recently-appointed acting secretary of defense Christopher Miller by name. That day, Trump ordered Miller to "do whatever was necessary to protect the demonstrators" on January 6. The next day, Miller signed a memo severely limiting the ability of the D.C. National Guard to deploy without his personal permission. Since his appointment in March 2018, D.C. National Guard commanding major general William J. Walker had standing orders to respond to civil disturbances in the district, but on January 5, Walker received new orders from Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy forbidding him to respond to a civil disturbance without explicit prior approval from McCarthy and Miller. Previously, he had authority to respond without first seeking permission. After the attack, Walter described the order as "unusual", noting "It required me to seek authorization from the secretary of the Army and the secretary of defense to essentially protect my guardsmen."

On January 4, D.C. mayor Bowser announced that the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD) would lead law enforcement in the district, and would coordinate with the Capitol Police, the U.S. Park Police, and the Secret Service. Jurisdictionally, the Metropolitan Police Department is responsible for city streets of the National Mall and Capitol area, whereas the Park Police are responsible for the Ellipse (the site of Trump's speech and rally that day), the Secret Service is responsible for the vicinity of the White House, and the Capitol Police is responsible for the Capitol complex itself. During a meeting with a representative of the Capitol Police, the Mayor asked "[W]here does your perimeter start?". At that point the individual left room, and stopped participating in the conference. The mayor later recalled "[T]hat should have been like a trigger to me. Like these people, they don't want to answer questions about their preparation."

On January 6, under "orders from leadership", the Capitol Police deployed without "less lethal" arms such as sting grenades. The Capitol Police armory was not properly maintained. Department riot shields had been improperly stored at the wrong temperature, rendering them ineffective, while ammunition stores were expired.

Trump supporters gather in D.C.

On January 5, Michael Flynn (top) and Roger Stone (bottom) spoke at a Trump rally near the Capitol. Both had received presidential pardons in the past month.

On January 5, several events related to overturning the election occurred on or near the National Mall in Washington, D.C., at places such as Freedom Plaza, the North Inner Gravel Walkway between 13th and 14th Streets, Area 9 across from the Russell Senate Office Building, and near the United States Supreme Court. On the night of January 5 and into the morning of January 6, at least ten people were arrested, several on weapons charges.

On January 5, Ray Epps, an individual with a history in the Arizona Oath Keepers, was filmed during two street gatherings urging people to go into the Capitol the next day, "peacefully", he said at one of the gatherings. Epps was filmed on January 6 telling people to "go to the Capitol". Epps had texted his nephew that he was "orchestrating" the flow into the Capitol building. Epps later claimed that he had been boasting about "directing" people towards the Capitol.

From 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. on January 5, a series of Trump rallies were held at Freedom Plaza. Notable speakers included Alex Jones, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, and Roger Stone.

Both Flynn and Stone had received presidential pardons in prior weeks. On December 8, Trump pardoned retired U. S. Army lieutenant general Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to "willfully and knowingly" making false statements to the FBI about communications with the Russian ambassador. Flynn, a prominent QAnon proponent, participated in the D.C. events on January 5, while his brother, U.S. Army general Charles Flynn, would participate in a conference call on January 6 when he would refuse permission to deploy the National Guard after the breach of the Capitol. On December 23, Trump pardoned Roger Stone, who had been found guilty at trial of witness tampering, making false statements to Congress, and obstruction. Stone, who had longtime ties to both the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, employed Oath Keepers as security on January 5. Stone's Oath-Keeper driver was later convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in plotting and executing the following day's attack.

January 5 meetings

In the evening of January 5, Trump's closest allies, including Michael Flynn, Corey Lewandowski, Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville, and Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric, met at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. Tuberville has since said that he did not attend the meeting, despite having been photographed in the hotel's lobby. According to Charles Herbster, who said he attended the meeting himself, attendees included Tuberville, Adam Piper, and Peter Navarro. Daniel Beck wrote that "Fifteen of us spent the evening with Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, Tommy Tuberville, Mike Lindell, Peter Navarro, and Rudy Giuliani". Herbster claimed to be standing "in the private residence of the President at Trump International with the following patriots who are joining me in a battle for justice and truth". He added David Bossie to the list of attendees.

Bombs placed

At 7:40 p.m. on January 5, someone wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, a face mask, and Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers was filmed carrying a bag through a residential neighborhood on South Capitol Street. At 7:52 p.m., the individual was recorded sitting on a bench outside the DNC; the next day, a pipe bomb was discovered there, placed under a bush. In the footage, the suspect appears to zip a bag, stand and walk away. At 8:14, the suspect was filmed in an alley near the RNC, where a second pipe bomb was found the following day. Both bombs were placed within a few blocks of the Capitol. Nearing the second anniversary of the incident, a reward of $500,000 was being offered, but as of the third anniversary, no suspects have been named.

January 6 Trump rally

Speakers included Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.

On January 6, the "Save America" rally (or "March to Save America", promoted as a "Save America March") took place on the Ellipse within the National Mall just south of the White House. The permit granted to Women for America First scheduled a first amendment rally "March for Trump", with speeches running from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with an additional hour for the conclusion of the rally and dispersal of participants.

Trump supporters gathered on the Ellipse to hear speeches from Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and others, such as Chapman University School of Law professor John C. Eastman, who spoke, at least in part, based on his memorandums, which have been described as an instruction manual for a coup d'état. In a court filing in February, a member of the Oath Keepers claimed she had acted as "security" at the rally, and was provided with a "VIP pass to the rally where she met with Secret Service agents". The U.S. Secret Service denied that any private citizens had coordinated with it to provide security on January 6. On February 22, she changed her story and said that she interacted with the Secret Service only as she passed through the security check before the rally.

Mo Brooks was a featured speaker at the rally and spoke around 9 a.m., where he said, "Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass". And later, "Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America? Louder! Will you fight for America?"

Representative Madison Cawthorn said, "This crowd has some fight". Women for America First founder Amy Kremer told attendees, "it is up to you and I to save this Republic" and called on them to "keep up the fight". Trump's sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, along with Eric's wife Lara Trump, also spoke, naming and verbally attacking Republican congressmen and senators who were not supporting the effort to challenge the Electoral College vote, and promising to campaign against them in future primary elections. Donald Jr. said of Republican lawmakers, "If you're gonna be the zero and not the hero, we're coming for you".

Rudy Giuliani repeated conspiracy theories that voting machines used in the election were "crooked" and at 10:50 called for "trial by combat". Eastman asserted that balloting machines contained "secret folders" that altered voting results. At 10:58, a Proud Boys contingent left the rally and marched toward the Capitol Building.

On January 6, the "Wild Protest" was organized by Stop The Steal and took place in Area 8, across from the Russell Senate Office Building. On January 6, the "Freedom Rally" was organized by Virginia Freedom Keepers, Latinos for Trump, and United Medical Freedom Super PAC at 300 First Street NE, across from the Russell Senate Office Building.

Trump's speech

An image of Trump delivering his rally speech from behind a bulletproof shield was projected onto this screen at the rally.

Starting at 11:58, from behind a bulletproof shield, President Trump gave a speech, declaring that he would "never concede" the election, criticizing the media, and calling for Pence to overturn the election results. His speech contained many falsehoods and misrepresentations that inflamed the crowd. Trump did not call on his supporters to use violence or enter the Capitol, but his speech was filled with violent imagery. On social media, Trump was suggesting that his supporters had the power to prevent Biden from taking office. One of his tweets, posted on January 6, 2021, at 5:43 a.m., was "Get smart Republicans. FIGHT." The same afternoon, Pence released a letter to Congress, in which he said he could not challenge Biden's victory.

Although the initial plan for the rally called for people to remain at the Ellipse until the counting of electoral slates was complete, the White House said they should march to the Capitol, as Trump repeatedly urged during his speech. Trump called for his supporters to "walk down to the Capitol" to "cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them." He told the crowd that he would be with them, but he ultimately did not go to the Capitol. As to counting Biden's electoral votes, Trump said, "We can't let that happen" and suggested Biden would be an "illegitimate president". Referring to the day of the elections, Trump said, "most people would stand there at 9:00 in the evening and say, 'I want to thank you very much,' and they go off to some other life, but I said, 'Something's wrong here. Something's really wrong. [It] can't have happened.' And we fight. We fight like Hell and if you don't fight like Hell, you're not going to have a country anymore". He said the protesters would be "going to the Capitol and we're going to try and give [Republicans] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country". Trump also said, "you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated".

Trump denounced Representative Liz Cheney, saying, "We've got to get rid of the weak Congresspeople, the ones that aren't any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world". He called upon his supporters to "fight much harder" against "bad people"; told the crowd that "you are allowed to go by very different rules"; said that his supporters were "not going to take it any longer"; framed the moment as the last stand; suggested that Pence and other Republican officials put themselves in danger by accepting Biden's victory; and told the crowd he would march with them to the Capitol (but was prevented from doing so by his security detail). In addition to the twenty times he used the term "fight", Trump once used the term "peacefully", saying, "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard".

During Trump's speech, his supporters chanted "Take the Capitol", "Taking the Capitol right now", "Invade the Capitol", "Storm the Capitol" and "Fight for Trump". Before Trump had finished speaking at 1:12 p.m., the Proud Boys had begun their attack on the Capitol and breached the outer perimeter of the Capitol grounds; the two pipe bombs had been discovered nearby.

Attack on the Capitol

Just before the Proud Boys attacked the Capitol, pipe bombs were discovered near the complex. Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other attackers besieged and ultimately breached the Capitol. Members of the Congress barricaded themselves in the chamber, and one attacker was fatally shot by police while attempting to breach a barricade.

After officials at the Pentagon delayed deployment of the National Guard, citing concerns about optics, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser requested assistance from the governor of Virginia. By 3:15, Virginia State Police began arriving in D.C. After Vice President Pence and the Congress were evacuated to secure locations, law enforcement cleared and secured the Capitol.

(1) Beginning at 9 a.m., a rally was held at the White House Ellipse.
(2) Proud Boys assembled at the Washington Monument at 10 a.m. and departed for the Capitol around 10:30.
(3) About 12:40 p.m., a bomb was discovered outside the RNC.
(4) Minutes later, at 12:53 p.m., Proud Boys near the Freedom Memorial breached a barricade on the outer perimeter, gaining entry to Capitol grounds.
(5) At 1:07 p.m., a second bomb was discovered outside the DNC.
(6) At 2:10 p.m., the Proud Boys breached the Capitol by breaking a window on the west terrace with a stolen police riot shield.
(7) Oath Keepers marched up Capitol steps in a stack formation; at 2:39 p.m., they breached the Capitol through a door to the Rotunda.

Proud Boys march to Capitol as mob assembles

At 10:30, over a hundred Proud Boys left the Washington Monument, led by Ethan Nordean and Joe Biggs. By 11:52, the group had reached the Capitol and proceeded to walk around the building before doubling back to the west side, which allowed them to assess building defenses and to look for weaknesses.

En route, comments from one of the Proud Boys served as an early indicator of a plan to attack the Capitol, according to a documentary filmmaker who was on scene:

There's only one moment where that – the sort of facade of marching and protesting might have fallen, which is there was a – one of the Proud Boys called Milkshake and Eddie Block on his livestream catches Milkshake saying, well, let's go storm the Capitol with Nordean – Rufio – one of the leaders of the Proud Boys saying, you could keep that quiet, please, Milkshake. And then we continued on marching.

Around 12:30, a crowd of about 300 assembled east of the Capitol. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), a leader of the group of lawmakers who vowed to challenge the Electoral College vote, greeted these protesters with a raised fist as he passed by on his way to Congress's joint session in the early afternoon. At 12:52, a group of Oath Keepers, wearing black hoodies with prominent logos, left the rally at the Ellipse and changed into Army Combat Uniforms, with helmets, on their way to the Capitol.

Shortly before 12:53, Nordean and Biggs marched the group of 200–300 Proud Boys to a barricade on the west side of the Capitol grounds near the Peace Monument. Biggs used a megaphone to lead the crowd in chants.

Bombs discovered near Capitol Complex

One of two pipe bombs discovered adjacent to the Capitol on January 6, 2021

Around 12:45 p.m., a bomb was discovered next to a building containing Republican National Committee (RNC) offices by a woman using the shared alleyway to access her apartment building's laundry room. She alerted RNC security, which investigated and summoned law enforcement; U.S. Capitol Police, FBI agents and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) all responded to the RNC bomb.

About thirty minutes later, while officers were still responding at the RNC, they were informed a second pipe bomb had been discovered under a bush at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was inside the DNC headquarters at the time the pipe bomb was discovered. Capitol Police began investigating the DNC pipe bomb at 1:07 p.m., and Harris was evacuated at approximately 1:14 p.m. The devices were of a similar design – about one foot (30 cm) in length. They were safely detonated by bomb squads; the pipe bomb at the RNC was neutralized at 3:33 p.m. and the pipe bomb at the DNC was neutralized at 4:36 p.m., according to a Capitol Police timeline. The bombs were fully functional and constructed of galvanized steel pipes, homemade black powder, and kitchen timers. The FBI stated that the bombs "were viable and could have been detonated, resulting in serious injury or death".

Sund told The Washington Post on January 10 that he suspected the pipe bombs were intentionally placed to draw police away from the Capitol; Representative Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) echoed the sentiment in a virtual news conference on January 11, saying, "[W]e do believe there was some level of coordination ... because of the pipe bombs ... that immediately drew attention away from the breach that was happening". The Inspector General of the Capitol Police later concluded, "If those pipe bombs were intended to be diversion... it worked". As the mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol, the discovery of the pipe bombs diverted a large number of already-outnumbered law enforcement officers from the Capitol. Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton testified before Congress that "the bombs drew three teams to investigate" and left only one squad at the Capitol.

Attack begins near Peace Monument, led by Proud Boys

At 12:54, just after interacting with Proud Boy leader Joe Biggs, a man later identified as Ryan Samsel (boxed in red) was the first to breach the restricted Capitol grounds.

The Proud Boys contingent reached the west perimeter of the Capitol grounds, which was protected only by a sparse line of police in front of a temporary fence. Other Trump supporters arrived, adding to a growing crowd. The Proud Boys tactically coordinated their attacks "from the first moment of violence to multiple breaches of the Capitol while leaving the impression that it was just ordinary protesters leading the charge". Proud Boys targeted an access point and began to rile up the previously-peaceful crowd. In a "tipping point" moment, a man later identified as Ryan Samsel approached Joe Biggs and talked with him, even embracing him. Samsel later told the FBI that Biggs "encouraged him to push at the barricades and that when he hesitated, the Proud Boys leader flashed a gun, questioned his manhood and repeated his demand to move upfront and challenge the police", according to The New York Times. Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola recalled seeing Biggs flash a handgun and goading Samsel, telling him to "defend his manhood" by attacking the police line, but later tried to retract this statement. As soon as that exchange ended, Samsel became the first to violently attack Capitol Police. Capitol police officer Caroline Edwards described the attack:

Ms. Edwards described how a Proud Boys leader named Joseph Biggs encouraged another man to approach the bike rack barricade where she was posted. That man, Ryan Samsel, she said, pushed the bike rack over, causing her to hit her head and lose consciousness. But before she blacked out, Ms. Edwards recalled seeing "a war scene" playing out in front of her. Police officers were bleeding and throwing up, she recalled. "It was carnage," she said. "It was chaos."

Video showed Officer Edwards being pushed back behind a bicycle rack as Proud Boys pushed barricades towards her, knocking her off her feet and causing her to hit her head on the concrete steps.

The Proud Boys led the charge toward the Capitol, to the next police line, repeating the same set of tactics: identifying building access points, riling up other protesters, and sometimes directly joining in the violence. When met with resistance, leaders of the group reassessed, and teams of Proud Boys targeted new entry points to the Capitol.

Around 1:00 p.m., hundreds of Trump supporters clashed with a second thin line of officers and pushed through barriers erected along the perimeter of the Capitol. The crowd swept past barriers and officers, with some members of the mob spraying officers with chemical agents or hitting them with lead pipes. Many rioters walked up the external stairways, while some resorted to ropes and makeshift ladders. Police blocked the entrance to a tunnel at the lower west terrace, where rioters waged a three-hour fight to enter. To gain access to the Capitol, several rioters scaled the west wall. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D–CA), aware that rioters had reached the Capitol steps, could not reach Capitol police chief Steven Sund by phone; House sergeant-at-arms Paul D. Irving told Lofgren the doors to the Capitol were locked and "nobody can get in".

Telephone logs released by Capitol Police show that Sund had been coordinating additional resources from various agencies. Sund's first call was to the D.C. Metropolitan Police, who arrived within 15 minutes. Sund called Irving and Stenger at 12:58 and asked them for an emergency declaration required to call in the National Guard; they both told Sund they would "run it up the chain", but formal approval to request the Guard was withheld for over an hour.

According to testimony from White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson, shortly after his speech concluded at 1:00 p.m. Trump ordered his Secret Service detail to drive him to the Capitol. When they refused, Trump reportedly assaulted his Secret Service driver, lunging for the man's throat.

On January 6, Joe Biggs and other Proud Boys led the "tip of the spear" to breach the Capitol Building. The LA Times noted that "whether by sheer luck, real-time trial and error, or advance knowledge", attackers ran past 15 reinforced windows, "making a beeline" for the recessed area near the Senate where two unreinforced windows and two doors with unreinforced glass were the only protection from attack.

Around 1:12 p.m., reinforcements from the MPD, equipped with crowd control gear, arrived on the lower west terrace. From 1:25 to 1:28, three different groups of Proud Boys leaders were recorded marching in stack formations away from the newly-reinforced police line. After about fifteen minutes of observing, the Proud Boys went back on the attack, targeting two new access points that were poorly defended. Ronald Loehrke and other Proud Boys led a contingent to the east side of the Capitol; once there, Proud Boys again used distraction and teamwork to remove barricades, prompting the previously-peaceful crowd on the east side to overrun barriers along the entire police line.

Meanwhile, on the west side, Joe Biggs led a team of Proud Boys that targeted the stairs covered by a temporary scaffolding. Within two minutes of Bigg's arrival, a team of over a dozen Proud Boys approached the entrance to the scaffolding and attacked police. Proud Boy Daniel "Milkshake" Scott led the charge, and a 20-minute battle for the scaffolding ensued.

At 1:50 p.m., the on-scene MPD incident commander declared a riot. At 1:58, Capitol Police officers removed a barricade on the northeast side of the Capitol, allowing hundreds of protestors to stream onto the grounds.

Attackers on west terrace breach Senate Wing hallway

Proud Boy leader Dominic Pezzola (top) using a stolen police riot shield to breach the Capitol at 2:11, allowing attackers including Pezzola, Doug Jensen, Joe Biggs and others to stream into the building (middle). A lone Capitol Police officer (bottom), Eugene Goodman, realizing he was steps away from the still-unsealed Senate chamber doors, shoved attacker Doug Jensen, leading the mob away from the Senate and towards a line of waiting Capitol Police reinforcements.

Just before 2:00 p.m., attackers reached the doors and windows of the Capitol and began attempts to break in. The Los Angeles Times observed that "whether by sheer luck, real-time trial and error, or advance knowledge", the first attackers to break through the police line onto the upper west terrace ran past 15 reinforced windows, "making a beeline" for the recessed area near the Senate where two unreinforced windows and two doors with unreinforced glass were the only protection from attack. At 2:11, Proud Boy leader Dominic Pezzola used a stolen police riot shield to smash one of those un-reinforced windows on the west side of the Capitol, breaching the building itself. By 2:13, the Capitol was officially breached. Although most of the Capitol's windows had been reinforced, attackers targeted those that remained as single-pane glass and could be broken easily. Joe Biggs and other Proud Boy leaders had entered the Capitol by 2:14. A news crew from British broadcaster ITV followed the rioters into the Capitol, the only broadcaster to do so.

At 2:13, Vice President Pence was removed from the Senate chamber by his lead Secret Service agent, Tim Giebels, who brought him to a nearby office about 100 feet (30 m) from the landing. Pence's wife Karen Pence, daughter Charlotte Pence Bond, and brother, Representative Greg Pence, were in the Capitol at the time it was attacked. As Pence and his family were being escorted from the Senate chamber to a nearby hideaway, they came within a minute of being visible to rioters on a staircase 100 feet (30 m) away.

Unaccompanied by other officers, Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman confronted the mob. He has been cited for heroism in baiting and diverting the rioters away from the Senate chamber in the minutes before the chamber could be safely evacuated. As the crowd of rioters reached a landing from which there was an unimpeded path to the chamber, Goodman pushed the lead attacker, Doug Jensen, and then deliberately retreated away from the chamber, enticing the crowd to chase him in another direction. One media report described his actions as follows:

In short, he tricked them, willingly becoming the rabbit to their wolf pack, pulling them away from the chambers where armed officers were waiting, avoiding tragedy and saving lives. Lives which include their own.

Those present at the time of the event, including Democratic and Republican legislators and members of the press, praised Goodman for his quick thinking and brave actions. Republican senator Ben Sasse credited Goodman with having "single-handedly prevented untold bloodshed". Goodman's actions were captured in video footage taken by HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic. Bobic's footage of Goodman went viral on the internet, receiving more than 10 million views. A second video of Goodman's confrontation with the crowd was published by ProPublica on January 15. Goodman was later awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal.

Evacuation of leadership amid Capitol lockdown

Congressional staffers removed the Electoral College certificates from the Senate floor as it was evacuated.

At 2:15, the Senate was gaveled into recess, and the doors were locked. A minute later, the rioters reached the doors to the gallery above the chamber. Banging could be heard from outside as rioters attempted to break through the doors. Meanwhile, in the House chamber, Speaker Pelosi was escorted out of the chamber. The House was gaveled into recess, but would resume a few minutes later.

A police officer carrying a semi-automatic weapon appeared on the floor and stood between then–Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and then–Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. Senator Mitt Romney exasperatedly threw up his hands and directly criticized several fellow Republicans who were challenging President-elect Biden's electoral votes, yelling to them, "This is what you've gotten, guys". Several members of Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough's staff carried the boxes of Electoral College votes and documentation out of the chamber to hidden safe rooms within the building.

Due to security threat inside: immediately, move inside your office, take emergency equipment, lock the doors, take shelter.

—Capitol Police alert

At 2:26, Pence's Secret Service detail evacuated him and his family from their hideaway near the Senate downstairs towards a more secure location. After his evacuation, Pence's detail wanted to move him away from the Capitol building, but Pence refused to get in the car. Addressing the agent in charge of his detail, Tim Giebels, Pence said, "I trust you, Tim, but you're not driving the car. If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I’m not getting in the car."

All buildings in the complex were subsequently locked down, with no entry or exit allowed. Capitol staff were asked to shelter in place; those outside were advised to "seek cover". As the mob roamed the Capitol, lawmakers, aides, and staff took shelter in offices and closets. Aides to Mitch McConnell, barricaded in a room just off a hallway, heard a rioter outside the door "praying loudly", asking for "the evil of Congress [to] be brought to an end". The rioters entered and ransacked the office of the Senate Parliamentarian.

With senators still in the chamber, Trump called Senator Tommy Tuberville and told him to do more to block the counting of Biden's electoral votes, but the call had to be cut off when the Senate chamber was evacuated at 2:30. After evacuation, the mob briefly took control of the chamber, with some armed men carrying plastic handcuffs and others posing with raised fists on the Senate dais Pence had left minutes earlier. Staff and reporters inside the building were taken by secure elevators to the basement and then to an underground bunker constructed following the attempted attack on the Capitol in 2001. Evacuees were redirected while en route after the bunker was also infiltrated by the mob.

The Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate, Michael C. Stenger, accompanied a group of senators, including Lindsey Graham and Joe Manchin, to a secure location in a Senate office building. Once safe, the lawmakers were "furious" with Stenger; Graham asked him, "How does this happen? How does this happen?" and added that they "[are] not going to be run out by a mob".

A Capitol police officer on the House floor points his sidearm towards an attacker.

Amid the security concerns, Representative Dean Phillips yelled, "This is because of you!" at his Republican colleagues. The House resumed debate around 2:25. After Gosar finished speaking at 2:30, the House again went into recess after rioters entered the House wing and were attempting to enter the Speaker's Lobby just outside the chamber. Lawmakers were still inside and being evacuated, with Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy, and a few others taken to a secure location. With violence breaking out, Capitol security advised members of Congress to take cover. Members of Congress inside the House chamber were told to don gas masks as law enforcement began using tear gas within the building.

ABC News reported that shots were fired within the Capitol. An armed standoff took place at the front door of the chamber of the House of Representatives: as the mob attempted to break in, federal law enforcement officers inside drew their guns and pointed them toward the chamber doors, which were barricaded with furniture. In a stairway, one officer fired a shot at a man coming toward him. Photographer Erin Schaff said that, from the Capitol Rotunda, she ran upstairs, where rioters grabbed her press badge. Police found her, and because her press pass had been stolen, held her at gunpoint before colleagues intervened.

The chief of staff for Representative Ayanna Pressley claimed that when the congresswoman and staff barricaded themselves in her office and attempted to call for help with duress buttons that they had previously used during safety drills, "[e]very panic button in my office had been torn out – the whole unit". Subsequently, a House Administration Committee emailed Greg Sargent of The Washington Post claiming the missing buttons were likely due to a "clerical screw-up" resulting from Pressley's swapping offices. Representative Jamaal Bowman tweeted that there were no duress buttons in his office, but acknowledged he was only three days into his term and that the buttons were installed a week later.

Multiple rioters, using the cameras on their cell phones, documented themselves occupying the Capitol and the offices of various representatives, vandalizing the offices of Speaker Pelosi, and stealing a laptop.

Oath Keepers arrive and breach Rotunda

Oath Keepers march in stack formation up the east steps of the Capitol on their way to breaching the Rotunda

Shortly after 2:00, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes arrived on the restricted Capitol grounds. At 2:30, a team of Oath Keepers ("Stack One", which included Meggs, Harrelson, Watkins, Hackett, and Moerschel), clad in paramilitary clothing, marched in a stack formation up the east steps of the Capitol to join the mob already besieging the Capitol. At 2:38, those doors to the Capitol Rotunda were breached, and "Stack One" entered the building alongside other attackers. A second group ("Stack Two") entered the Capitol through those same doors at 3:15. Throughout the attack, Oath Keepers maintained a "Quick reaction Force" ready to deliver an arsenal to the group if called upon.

Meanwhile, also at 2:38, Proud Boy founder Enrique Tarrio made a public social media post writing, "Don't fucking leave." In response to a member who asked "Are we a militia yet?", Tarrio replied, "Yep... Make no mistake... We did this..."

QAnon follower killed by police while attempting to breach Speaker's Lobby

Main article: Killing of Ashli Babbitt

External videos
After Zachary Jordan Alam (circled in red, bottom right) smashed the window with his helmet, Ashli Babbitt (circled in red, top left) attempted to breach the Speaker's Lobby by climbing through a window toward the fleeing congress.

At 2:44 p.m., law enforcement near the House Chamber was trying to "defend two fronts", and "a lot of members [of Congress] and staff that were in danger at the time". While some lawmakers remained trapped in the House gallery, House members and staff from the floor were being evacuated by Capitol Police, protected from the attackers by a barricaded door with glass windows.

As lawmakers evacuated, an attacker smashed a glass window beside the barricaded door.Lieutenant Michael Byrd aimed his weapon, prompting attackers to repeatedly warn "he's got a gun". Police and Secret Service warned "Get back! Get down! Get out of the way!". An attacker, wearing a Trump flag as a cape, began to climb through the shattered window, prompting Lt. Byrd to fire a single shot, hitting the attacker in the shoulder.

Mob members immediately began to leave the scene, making room for a Capitol Police emergency response team to administer aid. The attacker, later identified as 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, had entered the Capitol building through the breach on the upper west terrace. She was evacuated to Washington Hospital Center where she later died of her injury. The shooting was recorded on several cameras, and footage was widely circulated.

Attack on the Tunnel

Officer Daniel Hodges crushed in doorway of the Tunnel circa 3:15.

Around 3:15, MPD officer Daniel Hodges was crushed in a door while defending the Capitol tunnel from attackers. One of his attackers was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison.

At 3:21, MPD officer Michael Fanone was pulled into the mob and assaulted—dragged down the Capitol steps, beaten with pipes, stunned with a Taser, sprayed with chemical irritants, and threatened with his own sidearm. Fanone was carried unconscious back into the tunnel. He suffered burns, a heart attack, traumatic brain injuries, and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result. One of the men who attacked Fanone with a stun gun was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison.

By 3:39 p.m., fully-equipped riot officers from Virginia had arrived at the Capitol and began defending the tunnel, using flashbang munitions to clear the area of attackers.

Police clear the Capitol and Congress reconvenes

Reinforcements guard the Capitol after rioters were pushed out of the building.

A combined force of Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police began a joint operation to clear the Capitol. By 2:49, the Crypt was cleared, and the mob outside the Speaker's Lobby was cleared by 2:57. At 3:25, law enforcement, including a line of MPD officers in full riot gear, proceeded to clear the Rotunda; and by 3:40, rioters had mostly been pushed out onto West Plaza.

At 4:22 p.m., Trump issued a video message to supporters on social media, finally telling them to "go home". At 5:08, Army senior leaders relayed to Major General Walker the secretary of defense's permission to deploy the DC National Guard to the Capitol; The first contingent of 155 Guard members, dressed in riot gear, began arriving at the Capitol at 5:20. By 6 p.m., the building was cleared of rioters, and bomb squads swept the Capitol.

At 8:06 p.m., Pence called the Senate back into session, and at 9 p.m., Pelosi did the same in the House. After debating and voting down two objections, Congress voted to confirm Biden's electoral college win at 3:24 a.m.

Federal officials' conduct

Trump's conduct

Further information: Domestic reactions to the January 6 United States Capitol attack § President Trump

See also: False or misleading statements by Donald Trump § January 6 attack

Trump was in the West Wing of the White House at the time of the attack. He was "initially pleased" and refused to intercede when his supporters breached the Capitol. Staffers reported that Trump had been "impossible to talk to throughout the day". Concerned that Trump may have committed treason through his actions, White House counsel Pat Cipollone reportedly advised administration officials to avoid contact with Trump and ignore any illegal orders that could further incite the attack, in order to limit their prosecutorial liability under the Sedition Act of 1918.

Shortly after 2:00 p.m. EST, as the attack was ongoing and after Senators had been evacuated, Trump placed calls to Republican senators (first Mike Lee of Utah, then Tommy Tuberville of Alabama), asking them to make more objections to the counting of the electoral votes. Pence was evacuated by the Secret Service from the Senate chamber around 2:13.  At 2:47 p.m., as Trump's supporters violently clashed with police at the Capitol, Trump's account tweeted, "Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!"; The Washington Post later reported that Trump did not want to include the words "stay peaceful". It later emerged this message was sent by Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino.

During the attack, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows received messages from Donald Trump Jr., as well as Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Brian Kilmeade, urging him to tell Trump to condemn the mayhem, or risk destroying his legacy. By 3:10, pressure was building on Trump to condemn supporters engaged in the attack. By 3:25, Trump tweeted, "I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue", but he refused to call upon the crowd to disperse. By 3:40, several congressional Republicans called upon Trump to more specifically condemn violence and to tell his supporters to end the occupation of the Capitol.

At some point on January 6, Trump formally withdrew his nomination of acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf, transmitting his withdrawal to the Senate.

By 3:50 p.m., White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the National Guard and "other federal protective services" had been deployed. At 4:06 p.m. on national television, President-elect Biden called for President Trump to end the attack. At 4:22 p.m., Trump issued a video message on social media that Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube later took down. In it, he repeated his claims of electoral fraud, praised his supporters, and told them to "go home". At 6:25 p.m., Trump tweeted: "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long" and then issued a call: "Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!". At 7:00, Rudy Giuliani placed a second call to Lee's number and left a voicemail intended for Tuberville, urging him to make more objections to the electoral votes as part of a bid "to try to just slow it down".

Inflammatory speech while knowing of weapons

During the "Save America" rally, Trump delivered a speech filled with violent imagery, despite knowing that some of his supporters were armed. He demanded that armed supporters be allowed to enter the rally, and later instructed the crowd to march on the US Capitol. In a December 21, 2021, statement, Trump falsely called the attack a "completely unarmed protest". The Department of Justice said in a January 2022 official statement that over 75 people had been charged, in relation to the attack, with entering a restricted area while armed with "a dangerous or deadly weapon", including some armed with guns, stun guns, knives, batons, baseball bats, axes, and chemical sprays. According to testimony from Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, a Secret Service official had warned Trump that protestors were carrying weapons, but Trump wanted the magnetometers used to detect metallic weapons removed so armed supporters could enter the rally. According to Hutchinson, when warned, Trump said:

I don't fucking care that they have weapons, they're not here to hurt me. They're not here to hurt me. Take the fucking mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here, let the people in and take the mags away.

Allegation that he assaulted a Secret Service driver

In June 2022, Cassidy Hutchinson testified that she was told by then-White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato that after Trump got into the presidential SUV following his rally, hoping to drive to the Capitol as his supporters marched there, his lead Secret Service agent Robert Engel told him it was too dangerous and informed him they were returning to the White House. Hutchinson said Ornato told her Trump became irate, attempted to grab the steering wheel of the vehicle, and lunged at Engel's clavicle. She testified Engel was present with Ornato as he related the incident but never contradicted the account. Three days after Hutchinson's testimony, CNN reported that it had spoken with two Secret Service agents who had heard accounts of the incident from multiple other agents since February 2021, including Trump's driver. Although details differed, agents confirmed there was an angry confrontation, with one agent relating that Trump "tried to lunge over the seat – for what reason, nobody had any idea", but no one asserted Trump attacked Engel. A separate Secret Service official told CNN that Engel denied that Trump grabbed at the steering wheel or lunged toward an agent on his detail, and that Ornato denied telling Hutchinson that. The same day, Politico reported that during an early 2022 deposition Engel told the committee that he had kept his full account of the incident from his Secret Service colleagues for at least fourteen months. On July 14, 2022, CNN published a corroborating account by a Metropolitan Police officer in the motorcade, who told of the "heated exchange" Trump had with his Secret Service detail when they refused to take him to the Capitol following his rally on January 6.

Endangering Mike Pence

On January 5, after Vice President Mike Pence refused to participate in the fake electors plot, Trump warned that he would have to publicly criticize him. This prompted Pence's chief of staff to become concerned for Pence's safety and to alert Pence's Secret Service detail to the perceived threat. At 3:23 a.m. on the morning of January 6, QAnon leader Ron Watkins posted a tweet accusing Pence of orchestrating a coup against Trump and linked to a blog post which called for "the immediate arrest of [Pence], for treason."

At 2:24, while Pence was in hiding in the Capitol, Trump tweeted that Pence "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done". Trump followers on far-right social media called for Pence to be hunted down, and the mob began chanting, "Where is Pence?" and "Find Mike Pence!" Outside, the mob chanted, "Hang Mike Pence!", which some crowds continued to chant as they stormed the Capitol; at least three rioters were overheard by a reporter as saying that they wanted to find Pence and execute him as a "traitor" by hanging him from a tree outside the building. One official recalled that: "The members of the [Vice President's Secret Service detail] at this time were starting to fear for their own lives... they're screaming and saying things like 'say goodbye to the family'." According to witnesses, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told coworkers that Trump complained about Pence being escorted to safety and then stated something suggesting that Pence should be hanged. Pence later argued that Trump's "reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day."

Failure to end the attack

In a televised January 6 Attack congressional hearing on June 9, 2022, congresspersons Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney stated that Trump did nothing to stop the attack despite numerous urgent requests that he intervene. They described Trump's inaction as a "dereliction of duty". Cheney said that Trump had attempted to overturn a free and fair democratic election by promoting a seven-part conspiracy. According to Representative Thompson, "Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after Jan. 6, to overthrow the government... The violence was no accident. It represents Trump's last stand, most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power." Trump, according to the committee, "lied to the American people, ignored all evidence refuting his false fraud claims, pressured state and federal officials to throw out election results favoring his challenger, encouraged a violent mob to storm the Capitol and even signaled support for the execution of his own vice president".

After the June 9 hearing, Congressman Tom Rice reiterated his long-held view of Trump's conduct, saying, "He watched it happen. He reveled in it. And he took no action to stop it. I think he had a duty to try to stop it, and he failed in that duty."

Capitol Police leadership's failure to prepare

Main article: Law enforcement response to the January 6 United States Capitol attack

 

On January 6, the Capitol police were led by Michael C. Stenger (top left) the Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate, Paul D. Irving (top right) the Sergeant at Arms of the United States House of Representatives, and Steven Sund (bottom), the Chief of the Capitol Police. All three resigned in the wake of January 6.

Capitol Police leadership had not planned for a riot or attack, and on January 6, under "orders from leadership", the force deployed without riot gear, shields, batons, or "less lethal" arms such as sting grenades. Department riot shields had been improperly stored, causing them to shatter upon impact. Hundreds more Capitol Police could have been used, but they were not.

Concerned about the approaching mob, Representative Maxine Waters called Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who was not on the Capitol grounds but at the police department's headquarters. When asked what the Capitol Police were doing to stop the rioters, Sund told Waters, "We're doing the best we can" and then hung up on her. It was not until 2:10 p.m. that the Capitol Police board granted Chief Sund permission to formally request deployment of the Guard.

In a February 2021 confidence vote organized by the U.S. Capitol Police Labor Committee, the union representing Capitol Police officers, 92 percent voted that they had no confidence in leadership, writing: "Our leaders did not properly plan for the protest nor prepare officers for what they were about to face. This despite the fact they knew days before that the protest had the potential to turn violent. We still have no answers why leadership failed to inform or equip us for what was coming on January 6th."

Department of Defense leadership's refusal to send Guard

Acting-Secretary Christopher Miller (top left), whose appointment had prompted concerns of a right-wing military coup, failed to authorize the National Guard to deploy until after the Capitol had been secured and Trump had called for supporters to "go home". Walter E. Piatt (top right) and Charles Flynn (bottom left) participated in a 2:26 p.m. call denying deployment of the guard, though the military did not admit Flynn's role for several weeks after the attack. Daniel R. Hokanson (bottom right) placed calls to ensure the Virginia and Maryland National Guard would not move until given explicit permission by the Pentagon.

On January 3, acting defense secretary Miller had been ordered by Trump to "do whatever was necessary to protect the demonstrators" on January 6.^[150] The following day, Miller issued orders which prohibited deploying D.C. Guard members with weapons, helmets, body armor, or riot control agents without his personal approval.^[152] Prior to the attack Trump had floated the idea with his staff of deploying 10,000 National Guardsmen, though not to protect the Capitol, but rather "to protect him and his supporters from any supposed threats by left-wing counterprotesters".^[355]

At 1:34 p.m., D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser had a telephone call with army secretary Ryan McCarthy in which she requested they deploy the Guard. At 2:10 p.m., the Capitol Police board granted chief Sund permission to formally request deployment of the Guard.^[154]: 737

At 2:26 p.m., D.C.'s homeland security director Chris Rodriguez coordinated a conference call with Mayor Bowser, the chiefs of the Capitol Police (Sund) and Metropolitan Police (Contee), and D.C. National Guard (DCNG) commander Walker. As the DCNG does not report to a governor, but to the president, Walker patched in the Office of the Secretary of the Army, noting that he would need Pentagon authorization to deploy. Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army Staff, noted that the Pentagon needed Capitol Police authorization to step onto Capitol grounds. Metro Police chief Robert Contee asked for clarification from Capitol Police chief Sund: "Steve, are you requesting National Guard assistance at the Capitol?" to which Sund replied, "I am making urgent, urgent, immediate request for National Guard assistance". According to Sund, Piatt stated, "I don't like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background". Sund pleaded with Piatt to send the Guard, but Piatt stated that only Army secretary McCarthy had the authority to approve such a request and he could not recommend that Secretary McCarthy approve the request for assistance directly to the Capitol. The D.C. officials were subsequently described as "flabbergasted" at this message. McCarthy would later state that he was not in this conference call because he was already entering a meeting with senior department leadership.^[240] General Charles A. Flynn, brother of General Michael Flynn, participated in the call.^[356][357]

By 3:37 p.m., the Pentagon dispatched its own security forces to guard the homes of senior defense leaders, "even though no rioters or criminal attacks are occurring at those locations." Sund later opined, "This demonstrates to me that the Pentagon fully understands the urgency and danger of the situation even as it does nothing to support us on the Hill."^[353][295]

In response to the reluctance expressed by Department of Defense leaders during the 2:26 conference call, D.C. officials contacted the State of Virginia. The Public Safety secretary of Virginia, Brian Moran, dispatched the Virginia State Police to the U.S. Capitol, as permitted by a mutual aid agreement with D.C.^[209] At 3:46 p.m., after leaders of the Department of Defense learned that the Virginia National Guard may have mobilized, the head of the National Guard Bureau, General Hokanson, called the Virginia commander to verify that the Virginia Guard would not move without prior permission from the Pentagon. At 3:55, Hokanson made a similar call to the commander of the Maryland National Guard.^[358]

On January 6, Secretary Miller ultimately withheld permission to deploy the National Guard until 4:32 p.m., after assets from Virginia had already entered the district, FBI tactical teams had arrived at the Capitol, and Trump had instructed rioters to "go home".^[359][360] Miller's permission would not actually be relayed to the commander of the National Guard until 5:08.^[361] Sund recalls a comment from the DC National Guard commander General Walker who said:

Steve, I felt so bad. I wanted to help you immediately, but I couldn't. I could hear the desperation in your voice, but they wouldn't let me come. When we arrived, I saw the New Jersey State Police. Imagine how I felt. New Jersey got here before we did!^{[362][353]: Ch. 2}

The Army falsely denied for two weeks that Lt. Gen. Charles A. Flynn – the Army deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and training – was on the conference call requesting the National Guard. Flynn's role drew scrutiny in light of his brother Michael's recent calls for martial law and an election do-over that would be overseen by the military.^[356] Flynn testified that "he never expressed a concern about the visuals, image, or public perception of" sending the Guard to the Capitol; Col. Earl Matthews, who participated in the call and took contemporaneous notes, called Flynn's denial "outright perjury".^[363] Department of Defense leaders claim they called the D.C. National Guard commander at 4:30 to relay permission to deploy—leaders of the Guard deny this call ever took place.^[364]

Congressional conduct

During the attack, Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) posted information about the police response and the location of members on Twitter, including the fact that Speaker Pelosi had been taken out of the chamber, for which she has faced calls to resign for endangering members.^[365][366] Boebert responded that she was not sharing private information since Pelosi's removal was also broadcast on TV.^[287]

Representative Ayanna Pressley left the congressional safe room for fear of other members there "who incited the mob in the first place".^[287]

While sheltering for hours in the "safe room" – a cramped, windowless room where people sat within arms' length of each other – some Republican Congress members refused to wear face masks, even when their Democratic colleagues begged them to do so. During the following week, three Democratic members tested positive for COVID-19 in what an environmental health expert described as a "superspreader" event.^[367]

Deletion of Secret Service and Homeland Security text messages

As part of its investigation into the events of January 6, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General requested text messages from the Secret Service. In response, the messages were deleted.^[368][369] Text messages from Department of Homeland Security leaders Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli "are missing from a key period leading up to the January 6 attack".^[370] Wolf's nomination had been withdrawn by the White House sometime on January 6.^[371] A criminal investigation was opened into the deletion.^[372]

Participants, groups, and criminal charges

Main article: Criminal proceedings in the January 6 United States Capitol attack

Militia groups that participated in the attack

By November 2023, over 1,200 defendants had been charged for their role in the attack.^[32] The attackers included some of Trump's longtime and most fervent supporters from across the United States.^[373] The mob included Republican Party officials, current and former state legislators and political donors, far-right militants, white supremacists,^[373] conservative evangelical Christians,^[i] and participants of the "Save America" Rally.^[374] According to the FBI, dozens of people on its terrorist watchlist were in D.C. for pro-Trump events on the 6th, with the majority being "suspected white supremacists".^[375] Some came heavily armed and some were convicted criminals, including a man who had been released from a Florida prison after serving a sentence for attempted murder.^[373]

Last Sons of Liberty,^[376] Rod of Iron Ministries,^[377] and Groyper Army^[378] were directly involved but non-conspiring groups. NSC-131^[379] and Super Happy Fun America^[380] both were involved in the attack and allegedly conspired, though SHFA denies this.^[381] Multiple factions of the Three Percenters were also involved in the attack, including 'DC Brigade', 'Patriot Boys of North Texas',^[382] and 'B Squad'. The B Squad and DC Brigade conspired with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.^[383]

Proud Boys

Proud Boys leaders who were guilty of leading a seditious conspiracy to stop the transfer of power: Chairman Enrique Tarrio of Florida (top left), Ethan "Rufio" Nordean of Washington State (top center), Joe Biggs (top right) of Florida, Zachary Rehl of Pennsylvania (bottom left) and Jeremy Bertino of South Carolina (bottom right). Bertino pleaded guilty, while the other four were found guilty at trial.

Main article: Proud Boys § Participation in the January 6 United States Capitol attack

See also: Planning of the January 6 United States Capitol attack § Proud Boys

The Proud Boys played a much greater role in planning and coordinating the attack than was known in 2021. In 2022, new information appeared in testimony to the January 6th Committee and in a The New York Times investigative video.^[232] Another key revelation about the Proud Boys' plans came from an informant and concerned Mike Pence:

According to an F.B.I. affidavit the panel highlighted ... a government informant said that members of the far-right militant group the Proud Boys told him they would have killed Pence 'if given the chance.' The rioters on January 6th almost had that chance, coming within forty feet of the Vice-President as he fled to safety.^[384]

On July 7, 2023, Barry Bennet Ramey was sentenced to 5 years in prison. He was connected to the Proud Boys and pepper-sprayed police in the face.^[385] Proud Boys leaders Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl were sentenced to 17 and 15 years respectively.^[386] Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola, who breached the Capitol with a stolen police riot shield, was sentenced to 10 years.^[387] Proud Boys founder Enrique Tarrio, described as the "ultimate leader" of the conspiracy, was sentenced to 22 years in prison.^[85]

Oath Keepers

Main article: Oath Keepers § Participation in the January 6 United States Capitol attack

See also: Planning of the January 6 United States Capitol attack § Oath Keepers

The Oath Keepers are an American far-right^[388] anti-government militia^[388][389] whose leaders have been convicted of violently opposing the government of the United States, including the transfer of presidential power as prescribed by the United States constitution. It was incorporated in 2009 by founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes, a lawyer and former paratrooper. In 2023, Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy for his role in the attack, and another Oath Keepers leader, Kelly Meggs, was sentenced to 12 years for the same crime.^[390]

On January 13, 2022, 10 members of the Oath Keepers, including founder Stewart Rhodes, were arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy.^[391] On November 29, a jury convicted Rhodes and Florida chapter Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs of seditious conspiracy. Three other members of the Oath Keepers were found not guilty of seditious conspiracy, but were convicted on other, related charges.^[392][393]

On May 23, 2023, Rhodes, age 57, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.^[394] The Department of Justice announced plans to appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for longer prison terms for Rhodes and his co-defendants.^[394] At sentencing, the court described Rhodes as dangerous, noting "The moment you are released, whenever that may be, you will be ready to take up arms against your government."^[395] Eight of Rhodes's militiamen were convicted of seditious of conspiracy, among other charges. Meggs was sentenced to 12 years in prison.^[396] Jessica Watkins was sentenced to 8 years and six months, and Kenneth Harrelson was sentenced to four years in prison. Both convicts were members of the Oath Keepers, with Watkins's crimes including merging her local Ohio armed group with the Oath Keepers in 2020, and Harrelson's as serving as the right-hand man to Kelly Meggs, leader of the Florida chapter.^[397]

Prosecution diagram of the Oath Keepers leadership involved in the attack

QAnon

Jake Angeli, the "QAnon Shaman", in the US Senate during the attack. He was later sentenced to 41 months in prison.^[398]

Main article: QAnon § Attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. election

QAnon is an American political conspiracy theory and political movement that originated in the American far-right political sphere in 2017.^[399] QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". Those claims have been relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. Their core belief is that a cabal of Satanic,^{[400][401][402]} cannibalistic child molesters are operating a global child sex trafficking ring that conspired against Donald Trump.^[406] Watchdogs studied QAnon posts and warned of the potential for violence ahead of January 6, 2021.^{[407][408][409]} Multiple QAnon-affiliated protesters participated in the attack.^[410][411] One participant, whose attire and behavior attracted worldwide media attention, was Jake Angeli, a QAnon supporter nicknamed the "QAnon Shaman".^[412] Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who was shot dead by police as she was trying to break into the Speaker's Lobby, was a committed follower of QAnon.^[413][414] The day before the attack, she had tweeted: "the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours".^[415]

White supremacists, neo-Nazis, and neo-Confederates

Far-right emblematic gear was worn by some participants, including neo-Confederate, Holocaust deniers, neo-Nazi and Völkisch-inspired neopagan apparel, as well as a shirt emblazoned with references to the Auschwitz concentration camp and its motto, Arbeit macht frei ("Work sets you free").^{[416][375][25][417]}

The anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi group NSC-131 was at the event, although it is unknown to what extent.^{[418][419][j]} Following the event, members of the group detailed their actions and claimed they were the "beginning of the start of White Revolution in the United States".^[421] After the attack, two white nationalists known for racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric streamed to their online followers a video posted on social media showing a man harassing an Israeli journalist seeking to conduct a live report outside the building.^[416]

For the first time in U.S. history, a Confederate battle flag was displayed inside the Capitol.^[422][423] Some of the rioters carried American flags, Confederate battle flags,^{[6][422][424][425]} or Nazi emblems.^[426] A group of Indian American Trump supporters held an Indian flag.^[427] Varun Gandhi, a senior parliamentarian from India's ruling BJP, expressed surprise and disapproval of the prominent display of the Indian flag by some of the protestors in one of his tweets; opposition Indian National Congress leader Shashi Tharoor equated the mentality of some Indians with that of Trump supporters.^[428]

The laptop computer taken from Pelosi's office was taken by 22-year-old Capitol rioter Riley Williams, a member of the Atomwaffen.^{[429][430][431][432]} Williams' boyfriend, who tipped off police, said that she had intended to send the stolen laptop to a friend in Russia for sale to Russian intelligence.^[430][432] Williams was sentenced to 3 years in prison.^[433]

The National Capital Region Threat Intelligence Consortium, a fusion center that aids the DHS and other federal national security and law enforcement groups, wrote that potentially violent individuals were joining the protest from the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division and Stormfront. Despite this information, the Secret Service released an internal memo that stated there was no concern.^[434]

Others

Although the anti-government Boogaloo movement mostly were opposed to Donald Trump, a Boogaloo follower said several groups under his command helped attack the Capitol, taking the opportunity to strike against the federal government.^[435] Also present during the attack were parts of the National Anarchist Movement and the Blue Lives Matter movement, supporters of the America First Movement, the Stop the Steal movement and the Patriot Movement, remnants of the Tea Party movement, the Three Percenters, the Groyper Army, Christian nationalists, and other far-right organizations and groups.^[25] Shirts with references to the internet meme Pepe the Frog were also seen, alongside "1776" and "MAGA civil war 2021" shirts, NSC-131 stickers, and the valknut symbol.^[436] Rioters were seen using the OK gesture, a gesture that had been famously co-opted as an alt-right symbol. Christian imagery, including a large "Jesus saves" banner, was seen in the crowd of demonstrators. Various other iconography was also on display, such as flags of other countries.^[k]

Anti-vaccine activists and conspiracy theorists were also present at the rally.^[439] Members of the right-wing Tea Party Patriots–backed group America's Frontline Doctors, including founder Simone Gold and its communications director, were arrested.^[440][441] She was later sentenced to 60 days in prison by a US federal court in Washington, D.C., for illegally entering the Capitol building.^[442] West Virginia delegate Derrick Evans, a state lawmaker, filmed himself entering the Capitol alongside rioters. On January 8, he was charged by federal authorities with entering a restricted area;^[443] he resigned from the House of Delegates the next day and was ultimately sentenced to 90 days in jail.^[444] Amanda Chase was censured by the Virginia State Senate for her actions surrounding the event.^[445]

Police and military connections

Politico reported that some rioters briefly showed their police badges or military identification to law enforcement as they approached the Capitol, expecting to be let inside; a Capitol Police officer told BuzzFeed News that one rioter had told him "[w]e're doing this for you" as he flashed a badge.^[352] One former police officer, Laura Steele, was convicted for breaching the Capitol with fellow Oath Keepers.^[446]

A number of U.S. military personnel participated in the attack;^[373] the Department of Defense is investigating members on active and reserve duty who may have been involved in the attack.^[447][448] Nearly 20% of defendants charged in relation to the attack, and about 12% of the participants in general, were current or former members of the U.S. military.^[449][450] A report from George Washington University and the Combating Terrorism Center said that "if anything ... there actually is a very slight underrepresentation of veterans among the January 6 attackers".^[450] Police officers and a police chief from departments in multiple states are under investigation for their alleged involvement in the attack.^[451] Two Capitol Police officers were suspended, one for directing rioters inside the building while wearing a Make America Great Again hat, and the other for taking a selfie with a rioter.^[452][453]

Analysis

A row of flags lining the Capitol grounds

In February 2021, an academic analysis in The Atlantic found that of the 193 persons so far arrested for invading the Capitol, 89 percent had no clear public connection to established far-right militias, known white-nationalist gangs, or any other known militant organizations. "The overwhelming reason for action, cited again and again in court documents, was that arrestees were following Trump's orders to keep Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the presidential-election winner". They were older than participants in previous far-right violent demonstrations and more likely to be employed, with 40% being business owners. The researchers concluded that these "middle-aged, middle-class insurrectionists" represented "a new force in American politics – not merely a mix of right-wing organizations, but a broader mass political movement that has violence at its core and draws strength even from places where Trump supporters are in the minority".^[454]

The Associated Press reviewed public and online records of more than 120 participants after the attack and found that many of them shared conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election on social media and had also believed other QAnon and "deep state" conspiracy theories. Additionally, several had threatened Democratic and Republican politicians before the attack.^[373] The event was described as "extremely online", with "pro-Trump internet personalities" and fans streaming live footage while taking selfies.^[455][456]

According to the University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism:

The "ordinary people" argument misses, or at least obscures, the extent to which the Capitol rioters were linked to dangerous groups and ideas.... at least 280 of the individuals charged with committing crimes on Jan. 6 were associated with extremist groups or conspiratorial movements. This includes 78 defendants who had links to the Proud Boys, a group with a history of violence; 37 members of the anti-government Oath Keepers militia; 31 individuals who embraced the similarly anti-government and militant views of the Three Percenters movement; and 92 defendants who promoted aspects of QAnon.... These 280 individuals make up approximately 35 percent of the Capitol defendants. While it is true that they do not represent a majority of the more than 800 people who have been charged in connection with the riot, ... A 35 percent rate of participation in extremism among a collective of apparently "ordinary" individuals is an astounding number – one that should shake us to our core.^[83]

Rioters outside the Capitol shortly after Congress was evacuated

Federal officials estimate that about ten thousand rioters entered the Capitol grounds,^[457] and the Secret Service and FBI have estimated that about 1,200 ultimately entered the building.^[458]

More than 800 video and audio files – including D.C. Metropolitan Police radio transmissions, Capitol Police body-worn camera footage, and Capitol surveillance camera footage – were later obtained as evidence in Trump's impeachment trial. The evidence showed that the assailants launched a large and coordinated attack. For example, "Security camera footage near the House chamber shows the rioters waving in reinforcements to come around the corner. Another video shows more than 150 rioters charging through a breached entrance in just a minute-and-a-half".^[459] While assaulting the Capitol, the crowd chanted "Fight, Fight"; "Stop the steal"; and "Fight for Trump".^[460] As they were overrun by a violent mob, the police acted with restraint and pleaded for backup.^[459] Many of the attackers employed tactics, body armor, and technology (such as two-way radio headsets) similar to those of the very police they were confronting.^[461] Some rioters wore riot gear, including helmets and military-style vests. A pair of rioters carried plastic handcuffs, which they found on a table inside the Capitol.^[462][463] In an analysis of later court documents, it was reported that at least 85 participants in the riot were charged with carrying or using a weapon—such as guns, knives, axes, chemical sprays, police gear, and stun guns—in the riots to assault others or break objects. It is illegal to possess weapons at the Capitol.^[464]

Results

Casualties and suicides

Further information: Aftermath of the January 6 United States Capitol attack § Casualties, and Law enforcement response to the January 6 United States Capitol attack § Suicides

See also: Killing of Ashli Babbitt and Death of Brian Sicknick

Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick died the day after the attack.

Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, was fatally shot in the upper chest by Lt. Michael Leroy Byrd while attempting to climb through the shattered window of a barricaded door.^[465][l]

Brian Sicknick, a 42-year-old responding Capitol Police officer, was pepper-sprayed during the attack and had two thromboembolic strokes the next day,^[470][471] after which he was placed on life support^[8] and soon died.^[472][473] The D.C. chief medical examiner found he died from a stroke, classifying his death as natural,^[474] and commented that "all that transpired played a role in his condition".^{[475][471][476]}

Rosanne Boyland, 34, died of an amphetamine overdose during the attack, rather than, as was initially reported, from being trampled by other rioters after her collapse,^[477] Her death was ruled as accidental by the D.C. medical examiner's office.^[28] Her mother, Cheryl Boyland, told NBC News: "She was not doing drugs. The only thing they found was her own prescription medicine."^[478]

Kevin Greeson, 55; and Benjamin Philips, 50, died naturally from coronary heart disease and hypertensive heart disease, respectively.^[28]

Four officers, from various police departments, who responded to the attack committed suicide in the days and months that followed.^[479] Capitol Police officer Howard Charles Liebengood died by suicide three days after the attack,^[480] and D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Jeffrey Smith, who was injured in the attack, died by suicide from a gunshot wound to the head at George Washington Memorial Parkway on January 15, after a misdiagnosed concussion.^[481] In July, two more members of law enforcement who responded to the attack died by suicide: Metropolitan Police officer Kyle Hendrik DeFreytag was found on July 10, and Metropolitan Police officer Gunther Paul Hashida was found on July 29.^[482]

Some rioters^[m] and 174 police officers were injured, of whom 15 were hospitalized, some with severe injuries.^[31] All had been released from the hospital by January 11.^[484]

Damage

A damaged window in the Capitol

Rioters stormed the offices of Nancy Pelosi, flipping tables and ripping photos from walls;^[289][290] the office of the Senate Parliamentarian was ransacked;^[269] art was looted;^[6] and feces were tracked into several hallways.^{[18][485][486]} Windows were smashed throughout the building, leaving the floor littered with glass and debris.^[6][487] Rioters damaged, turned over, or stole furniture.^[487] One door had "Murder the Media" scribbled onto it in all-caps.^[488] Rioters damaged Associated Press recording and broadcasting equipment outside the Capitol after chasing away reporters.^[489] Rioters also destroyed a display honoring the life of congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis.^[490][491] A photo of Representative Andy Kim cleaning up the litter in the rotunda after midnight went viral.^[492]

The rioters caused extensive physical damage.^[6][18] Architect of the Capitol J. Brett Blanton, who leads the office charged with maintaining the Capitol and preserving its art and architecture, reported in congressional testimony from late February 2021 that the combined costs of repairing the damage and post-attack security measures (such as erecting temporary perimeter fencing) already exceeded $30 million and would continue to increase.^[20] In May 2021, U.S. prosecutors estimated that the damage would cost almost $1.5 million.^[493] Interior damage from the attack included broken glass, broken doors, and graffiti; as well as defecation^[494] throughout the complex, on the floor and smeared on the walls; some statues, paintings, and furniture were damaged by pepper spray, tear gas, and fire extinguishing agents deployed by rioters and police.^[17][20]

The historic bronze Columbus Doors were damaged.^[20][495] Items, including portraits of John Quincy Adams and James Madison, as well as a marble statue of Thomas Jefferson, were covered in "corrosive gas agent residue"; these were sent to the Smithsonian for assessment and restoration.^[438] A 19th-century marble bust of President Zachary Taylor was defaced with what seemed to be blood, but the most important works in the Capitol collection, such as the John Trumbull paintings, were unharmed.^[17][487] On the Capitol's exterior, two 19th-century bronze light fixtures designed by Frederick Law Olmsted were damaged.^[17] Because the Capitol has no insurance against loss, taxpayers will pay for damage suffered during the siege.^[488] Rare old-growth mahogany wood, stored in Wisconsin for more than one hundred years by the Forest Products Laboratory, was used to replace damaged wood fixtures and doors at the Capitol.^[496][497]

Laptop theft and cybersecurity concerns

A laptop owned by Senator Jeff Merkley was stolen.^[498] A laptop taken from Pelosi's office was a "laptop from a conference room ... that was only used for presentations", according to Pelosi's deputy chief of staff.^[19] Representative Ruben Gallego said, "we have to do a full review of what was taken, or copied, or even left behind in terms of bugs and listening devices".^[352] Military news website SOFREP reported that "several" secret‑level laptops were stolen, some of which had been abandoned while still logged in to SIPRNet, causing authorities to temporarily shut down SIPRNet for a security update on January 7 and leading the United States Army Special Operations Command to re-authorize all SIPRNet-connected computers on January 8.^[499][500]

Representative Anna Eshoo said in a statement that "[i]mages on social media and in the press of vigilantes accessing congressional computers are worrying" and she had asked the Chief Administrative Officer of the House (CAO) "to conduct a full assessment of threats based on what transpired".^[501] The CAO said it was "providing support and guidance to House offices as needed".^[19]

Aftermath

Political, legal, and social repercussions

Indictment of Jacob Anthony Chansley (Jake Angeli; QAnon Shaman)

Fencing around the Capitol complex in February 2021

These paragraphs are an excerpt from Aftermath of the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[edit]

The attack was followed by political, legal, and social repercussions. The second impeachment of Donald Trump, who was charged for incitement of insurrection for his conduct, occurred on January 13. At the same time, Cabinet officials were pressured to invoke the 25th Amendment for removing Trump from office.^[502] Trump was subsequently acquitted in the Senate trial, which was held in February after Trump had already left office. The result was a 57–43 vote in favor of conviction, with every Democrat and seven Republicans voting to convict, but two-thirds of the Senate (67 votes) are required to convict.^[503] Many in the Trump administration resigned. Several large companies^[504] announced they were halting all political donations, and others have suspended funding the lawmakers who had objected to certifying Electoral College results.^[505] A bill was introduced to form an independent commission, similar to the 9/11 Commission, to investigate the events surrounding the attack; it passed the House but was blocked by Republicans in the Senate.^[506] The House then approved a House "select committee" to investigate the attack.^[507] In June, the Senate released the results of its own investigation of the attack. The event led to strong criticism of law enforcement agencies. Leading figures within the United States Capitol Police resigned.^[508][509] A large-scale criminal investigation was undertaken, with the FBI opening more than 1,200 case files. Federal law enforcement undertook a nationwide manhunt for the perpetrators, with arrests and indictments following within days. Over 890 people had been found guilty of federal crimes.^[510]

Trump was suspended from various social media sites for his involvement in inciting the attack, at first temporarily and then indefinitely. In response to posts by Trump supporters in favor of the attempts to overturn the election, the social networking site Parler was shut down by its service providers. Corporate suspensions of other accounts and programs associated with participating groups also took place.^{[511][512][513]}

The inauguration week was marked by nationwide security concerns. Unprecedented security preparations for the inauguration of Joe Biden were undertaken, including the deployment of 25,000 National Guard members. In May, the House passed a $1.9 billion Capitol security bill in response to the attack.^[514]

In the days following the attack on the Capitol, Republican politicians in at least three states introduced legislation creating new prohibitions on protest activity.^[515]

On August 1, 2023, Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AAA to AA+, making it the second time in U.S. history the government's credit rating was downgraded since Standard & Poor's downgrade in 2011. Fitch Ratings directly cited the attack as a factor in its decision to downgrade, privately telling Biden officials that the event "indicated an unstable government". It also cited rising debt at the federal, state, and local levels, a "steady deterioration in standards of governance" over the last two decades, worsening political divisions around spending and tax policy, and "repeated debt limit standoffs and last-minute resolutions." Fitch Ratings did note in a previous report that while government stability declined from 2018 to 2021, it had increased since Biden assumed the presidency.^[516]

Although a few evangelical leaders supported the attack,^[517] most condemned the violence and criticized Trump for inciting the crowd.^[518] This criticism came from liberal Christian groups such as the Red-Letter Christians, as well as evangelical groups who were generally supportive of Trump.^[517][519] This criticism did not noticeably affect evangelical support for Trump; investigative journalist Sarah Posner, author of Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump, argued that many white evangelical Christians in the U.S. create an echo chamber whereby Trump's missteps are blamed on the Democratic Party, leftists, or the mainstream media, the last of which being viewed as especially untrustworthy.^[520]

Domestic reactions

These paragraphs are an excerpt from Domestic reactions to the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[edit]

In the aftermath of the attack, after drawing widespread condemnation from the U.S. Congress, members of his administration, and the media, 45th U.S. President Donald Trump released a video-taped statement on January 7 to stop the resignations of his staff and the threats of impeachment or removal from office. In the statement, he condemned the violence at the U.S. Capitol, saying that "a new administration will be inaugurated", which was widely seen as a concession, and his "focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power" to the Joe Biden administration.^[521][522] Vanity Fair reported that Trump was at least partially convinced to make the statement by U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who told Trump a sufficient number of Senate Republicans would support removing him from office unless he conceded.^[523] Kayleigh McEnany, the White House Press Secretary, had attempted to distance the administration from the rioters' behavior in a televised statement earlier in the day.^[524] On January 9, The New York Times reported that Trump had told White House aides he regretted committing to an orderly transition of power and would never resign from office.^[525] In a March 25 interview on Fox News, Trump defended the Capitol attackers, saying they were patriots who posed "zero threat", and he criticized law enforcement for "persecuting" the rioters.^[526]

The Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement on January 12 condemning the attack and reminding military personnel everywhere that incoming President Joe Biden was about to become their commander-in-chief, saying "... the rights of freedom of speech and assembly do not give anyone the right to resort to violence, sedition, and insurrection".^[527] The statement also said, "As we have done throughout our history, the U.S. military will obey lawful orders from civilian leadership, support civilian authorities to protect lives and property, ensure public safety in accordance with the law, and remain fully committed to protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic".^[528][529] U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R–KY), then the Senate Majority Leader, called it a "failed insurrection",^[530][531] that "the mob was fed lies", and "they were provoked by the president and other powerful people".^[530] Christopher Wray, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since 2017, later characterized the incident as domestic terrorism.^[532][533] President Biden, who described the rioters as "terrorists" aimed at "overturning the will of the American people" later shared this opinion.^[534] In early 2021, the RAND Corporation released a framework to reduce the risk of extremist activity in the U.S. military.^[535]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had the flags at the Capitol lowered to half-staff in honor of Brian Sicknick, a United States Capitol Police officer who died following the attacks.^[536][537] Trump initially declined to lower flags at the White House or other federal buildings under his control, before changing his mind four days later.^{[538][539][540]} Biden, Mike Pence, and Pelosi offered condolences to Sicknick's family; Trump did not.^[536][541] After Sicknick's death, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) received backlash for previous speeches that were perceived as calls for violence.^[542]

A survey by the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston taken January 12–20 showed that nearly a third (32%) of Texas Republicans supported the attack, although overall 83% of all Texans who expressed an opinion were opposed to it.^[543] In a poll of Americans just after the attack, 79% of those surveyed said America is "falling apart".^[544][545] In February 2022, the Republican National Committee called the events of January 6 "legitimate political discourse".^[546]

The US art world reacted through the chronicling of the day as well as the creation of new work. Starting January 7, 2021, the Smithsonian Museum enacted its "rapid-response protocol" to gather rally signs, posters, flags, and weapons abandoned on the National Mall and began work on a digital arts exhibit.^[547] Visual artist Paul Chan created his "A drawing as a recording of an insurrection", a 163-inch (4.1 m) double-sided drawing^[548] exhibited at the Greene Naftali Gallery in New York.^[549] In December 2022, literary press Whiskey Tit released Tell Me What You See, the first fiction published about the attack.^[550] At the one-year anniversary, One Six Comics published graphic novel series 1/6^[551] with an commpanying education and action guide by the Western States Center^[552]. The Society of Classical Poets website posted various poems about the day,^[553] including one glorifying deceased rioter Ashli Babbitt.^[554]

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, civil rights groups and celebrities immediately criticized the Capitol Police for a perceived "double standard" in the treatment of the protesters and rioters, who were mostly white. Joe Biden stated, "No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday they wouldn't have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol. We all know that's true and it is unacceptable." Michelle Obama wrote, "Yesterday made it painfully clear that certain Americans are, in fact, allowed to denigrate the flag and symbols of our nation. They've just got to look the right way."^[555][556] Capitol Police chief Steven Sund, who later resigned, explained they had prepared for a peaceful protest but were overwhelmed by an "angry, violent mob".^[557] Later in the year, at a White House ceremony to thank officers who responded to the attack that day, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris congratulated the police on their response, calling them "heroes".^[558]

International reactions

These paragraphs are an excerpt from International reactions to the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[edit]

More than seventy countries and international organizations expressed their concerns over the attack and condemned the violence, with some specifically condemning President Donald Trump's own role in inciting the attack.^[559][560] Foreign leaders, diplomats, politicians, and institutions expressed shock, outrage, and condemnation of the events.^[561][562] Multiple world leaders made a call for peace, describing the assault as "an attack on democracy".^[563] The leaders of some countries, including Brazil, Poland, and Hungary, declined to condemn the situation, and described it as an internal U.S. affair.^[564]

As early as January 2021, a few European security officials described the events as an attempted coup.^[565]

14th Amendment disqualification

Main article: 2024 presidential eligibility of Donald Trump

In late 2022 Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. Some legal scholars have argued that Trump should be barred from presidential office under section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution because of his apparent support for the attack.^[566] As of February 2024, three states, Maine, Colorado, and Illinois, have disqualified Trump from appearing on election ballots, pending a Supreme Court appeal in the case Trump v. Anderson, which was argued on February 8, 2024.^{[567][568][569][570][571]}

Other public officials involved in the January 6 attack have also faced disqualification under the Fourteenth Amendment. Otero County, New Mexico, commissioner Couy Griffin was disqualified and removed from office while Congressional representative Marjorie Taylor Greene survived a similar challenge.^[572]

Analysis and terminology

See also: Description of the attempts to overturn the election as an attempted coup

This section is an excerpt from Aftermath of the January 6 United States Capitol attack § Contemporary analysis and terminology.[edit]

A week following the attack, journalists were searching for an appropriate word to describe the event.^[573] According to the Associated Press, U.S. media outlets first described the developments on January 6 as "a rally or protest", but as the events of the day escalated and further reporting and images emerged, the descriptions shifted to "an assault, a riot, an insurrection, domestic terrorism or even a coup attempt".^[574] It was variably observed that the media outlets were settling on the terms "riot" and "insurrection".^[574][575] According to NPR, "By definition, 'insurrection', and its derivative, 'insurgency', are accurate. 'Riot' and 'mob' are equally correct. While these words are not interchangeable, they are all suitable when describing Jan. 6."^[576] The New York Times assessed the event as having brought the United States "hours away from a full-blown constitutional crisis".^[577] Brian Stelter in CNN Business wrote that the events of the Capitol attack "will be remembered as an act of domestic terrorism against the United States".^[578]

Federal judge David Carter described Trump's actions as "a coup in search of a legal theory".^[579] Naunihal Singh of the U.S. Naval War College, and author of Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups, wrote that the attack on the Capitol was "an insurrection, a violent uprising against the government" and "sedition", but not a coup because Trump did not order the military "to seize power on his behalf".^[580][581] The Coup D'état Project of the Cline Center for Advanced Social Research at the University of Illinois, which tracks coups and coup attempts globally, classified the attack as an "attempted dissident coup", defined as an unsuccessful coup attempt "initiated by a small group of discontents" such as "ex-military leaders, religious leaders, former government leaders, members of a legislature/parliament, and civilians [but not police or the military]". The Cline Center said the "organized, illegal attempt to intervene in the presidential transition" by displacing Congress met this definition.^[582][583] Some political scientists identified the attack as an attempted self-coup, in which the head of government attempts to strong-arm the other branches of government to entrench power.^[584] Academic Fiona Hill, a former member of Trump's National Security Council, described the attack, and Trump's actions in the months leading up to it, as an attempted self-coup.^[585]

The FBI classified the attack as domestic terrorism.^[586][587] At the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on March 2, 2021, Wray testified:

I was appalled, like you, at the violence and destruction that we saw that day. I was appalled that you, our country's elected leaders, were victimized right here in these very halls. That attack, that siege was criminal behavior, plain and simple, and it's behavior that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism. It's got no place in our democracy and tolerating it would make a mockery of our nation's rule of law.^[588][589]

The Congressional Research Service also concluded that the attack met the federal definition of domestic terrorism.^[590][591] Republican senator Ted Cruz characterized it as terrorism at least eighteen times over the ensuing year, though he was among the Senate Republicans who blocked a bipartisan January 6 commission to investigate it.^[592][593]

On January 4, 2021, Steve Bannon, while discussing the planning for the upcoming events and speech by Trump on January 6 at The Ellipse, described it as a "bloodless coup".^[108][109]

A March 2023 poll found that 20.5 percent of respondents believed that violence to achieve a political goal is sometimes justified. Nearly 12 percent expressed their willingness to use force to restore Trump to power.^[594] A June 2023 poll found that about 12 million American adults, or 4.4 percent of the adult population, believed violence is justified in returning Trump to the White House.^[595]

Historians' perspectives

For broader coverage of this topic, see Timeline of violent incidents at the United States Capitol.

See also: List of incidents of political violence in Washington, D.C.; List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States; List of rebellions in the United States; and List of attacks on legislatures

While there have been other instances of violence at the Capitol in the 19th and 20th centuries, this event was the most severe assault on the building since the 1814 burning of Washington by British forces during the War of 1812. The last attempt on the life of the vice president was a bomb plot against Thomas Marshall in July 1915.^[596] For the first time in U.S. history, a Confederate battle flag was flown inside the Capitol. The Confederate States Army had never reached the Capitol, nor come closer than 6 miles (10 km) from the Capitol at the Battle of Fort Stevens, during the American Civil War.^[423][n]

Douglas Brinkley, a historian at Rice University,^[599] remarked on how January 6 would be remembered in American history: "Now every Jan. 6, we're going to have to remember what happened... I worry if we lose the date that it will lose some of its wallop over time". He also wrote about Trump's responsibility during the attack: "There are always going to be puzzle pieces added to what occurred on Jan. 6, because the president of the United States was sitting there watching this on television in the White House, as we all know, allowing it to go on and on".^[600]

Speaking on January 6, 2022, historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham warned that the U.S. remained at "a crucial turning point". Meacham commented, "What you saw a year ago today was the worst instincts of both human nature and American politics and it's either a step on the way to the abyss or it is a call to arms figuratively for citizens to engage". Goodwin added, "We've come through these really tough times before. We've had lots of people who were willing to step up and put their public lives against their private lives. And that's what we've got to depend on today. That's what we need in these years and months ahead."^[601]

Robert Paxton considered the attack to be evidence that Trump's movement was an example of fascism, a characterization that Paxton had resisted up to that point. Paxton compared the event to the French 6 February 1934 crisis.^[602]

Richard J. Evans said that it was not a coup, but that it did represent a danger to democracy in the United States.^[603]

Other scholars expressed concern about how history would portray the attack and its aftermath.^[604] Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, stated that reframing the insurrection as a "sightseeing tour" by the GOP has given "the far-right extremists, the neo-Nazi white supremacists who are obsessed with January 6, the counter reality they've been looking for of a bunch of patriots taking a tour in the Capitol."