In the days leading up to the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, President Joe Biden made little effort to hide the fact that the insurrectionist riot was on his mind. Indeed, last week, the retiring incumbent awarded Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming — the leaders of the now-defunct bipartisan Jan. 6 committee — with the Presidential Citizens Medal.
A few days later, during an exchange with reporters at the White House, Biden said, in reference to the Jan. 6 assault, “I think it should not be rewritten. I don’t think it should be forgotten.”
On the anniversary of the Trump-inspired violence, the Democratic president went further, writing an opinion piece for The Washington Post.
An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day. To tell us we didn’t see what we all saw with our own eyes. To dismiss concerns about it as some kind of partisan obsession. To explain it away as a protest that just got out of hand. This is not what happened. In time, there will be Americans who didn’t witness the Jan. 6 riot firsthand but will learn about it from footage and testimony of that day, from what is written in history books and from the truth we pass on to our children. We cannot allow the truth to be lost.
Part of what makes this so notable is the degree to which it captures where things stand in relation to the public discourse. Four years after the violence, we could certainly have another conversation about Donald Trump standing by for hours as a mob of his supporters attacked his own country’s Capitol, as part of a bid to claim illegitimate power in the wake of an election defeat. We could review anew what the rioters did, their intentions, their motivations, their weapons, their enablers, their willingness to violently clash with law enforcement, and even their terrifying proximity to then-Vice President Mike Pence.
But on the fourth anniversary of one of the most important examples of domestic political violence in our nation’s history, perhaps no element of the conversation is more important than the ongoing crusade to bully Americans’ memories into submission.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump and his allies engaged in a war against democracy. On Jan. 6, 2025, the conflict has evolved to include a war against the recent past.
Four years ago at this time, Trump was a defeated failure whose pathetic political career lay in ruins, and there was a broad agreement among officials in both parties that he deserved to be held accountable for his role in inciting the attack. The riot was so indefensible that the initial line from some Republicans was that the violence should be blamed on far-left Antifa radicals who were, the absurd theory posited, only pretending to be Trump supporters.
Variations on these ridiculous conspiracy theories continue to be popular in conservative circles, with related nonsense about the FBI being secretly responsible for encouraging rioters to commit crimes.
Paradoxically, while too many Republicans have implicitly conceded that the attack was atrocious — while trying to steer the blame away from those who actually bear responsibility, of course — others in the party have decided to recast the villains as heroes and victims. The New York Times published a striking report on the GOP’s “inverted interpretation,” which “defied what the country had watched unfold”.
That day was an American calamity. Lawmakers huddled for safety. Vice President Mike Pence eluded a mob shouting that he should be hanged. Several people died during and after the riot, including one protester by gunshot and four police officers by suicide, and more than 140 officers were injured in a protracted melee that nearly upended what should have been the routine certification of the electoral victory of Mr. Trump’s opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr. But with his return to office, Mr. Trump now has the platform to further rinse and spin the Capitol attack into what he has called “a day of love.” He has vowed to pardon rioters in the first hour of his new administration, while his congressional supporters are pushing for criminal charges against those who investigated his actions on that chaotic day.
Given my recent book about Republican efforts to rewrite recent history, this is a subject of particular interest to me, and my chapter on Jan. 6 is arguably the most important in the text. Indeed, part of what makes the right’s gambit so extraordinary is the obvious fact that rewriting the story seemed impossible at the time. The indelible video and images were simply too powerful to ignore or forget. The rioters on the Senate floor. The guns drawn at the entry to the House chamber. The noose displayed on a gallows. The “hang Mike Pence” chants. The plastic zip-tie handcuffs. The elected officials running to safety. The Confederate flag that never reached Capitol Hill during the Civil War, but which was carried down congressional hallways in January 2021. A rioter grinning with apparent pride as he put his foot on the speaker of the House’s desk. The insurrectionists breaking into the building, climbing its walls, violently clashing with law enforcement, all while Trump flags waved around them. The chilling footage was seen by too many people, domestically and around the world, for reality to yield. The details surrounding the attack — from its perpetrators to its instigators, its purpose to its effects, its organizers to its victims — were too well documented by investigators, policymakers, journalists, and prosecutors. The idea of a political party even attempting to rewrite the story of the assault seemed preposterous. It would not happen. It could not happen. That is, until Republicans decided it had to happen.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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