Assault on the Capitol: 24 Questions and Answers

What was Trump trying to accomplish on Jan. 6 by organizing a massive march on the Capitol just as Congress was preparing to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory? Trump was desperate to overturn the election outcome. He lost the popular vote by more than 7 million but only narrowly lost several battleground states, which allowed Biden to win the electoral college. Trump’s team had filed hundreds of lawsuits at the federal and state level to overturn the election outcome in those states. Every one of those lawsuits has failed even though many of them were heard by conservative and right-wing justices, including the Supreme Court. Trump’s main fear in losing the White House was that his immunity from criminal charges and other legal actions that he thought were likely to be brought against him and his family at the state level would be removed. Trump fears that once having left the White House he and his family would be subject to criminal prosecutions for financial crimes, fraud and the like similar to the offenses that Paul Manafort was convicted of and for which he is now in prison. The Trump Organization, like many corporate entities especially in the real estate industry, is being investigated for a litany of financial crimes over the course of its existence that Trump and his family is potentially liable for. Trump is (arguably) able to pardon himself for federal crimes before leaving office, but not for state crimes. The Jan. 6 march was alternatively billed as a “March to Save America” or a “March for Trump” and Trump was hoping to delay or stop the certification process. There can be no other explanation for why he called this particular protest, this particular action, this particular rally and march in the middle of the day and in the middle of a work week and just two hours prior to the certification vote in Congress. Contesting the election result — and asserting his win — also allowed him to retain control of the Republican Party in a way that a loss would not and provided him with a significant fundraising opportunity and slush fund. But it turned out to not just be a ploy. He spent the days up until Jan. 6 browbeating Pence, who presides over the certification process, to overturn the election results. Was this a coup attempt? This was an attempt to overturn the 2020 election outcome at the moment Congress was in session to certify the election results, as is mandated by federal law. The election took place on Nov. 3rd. Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million. He won the electoral college vote by 306-232. The Electoral College vote was certified on December 14, 2020. Congress was in session on January 6, 2021 to formally certify that Biden won the election so that he could be inaugurated, in accordance with federal law, on January 20, 2021. The violent takeover of the Capitol Building was designed to stop the election certification. Congress was dispersed. The president of the Senate, Mike Pence, was rushed out of the Senate Chamber and into hiding just moments before he would have been captured by a violent mob that was chanting “Hang Mike Pence, Hang Mike Pence.” This prevented the certification of the election outcome. Only after the mob was cleared from the Capitol Building was Congress able to reconvene to do this. While the Congress was dispersed and in hiding Trump made calls to members of the Congress to pressure them to help stop the certification. More than half the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted no on the certification when Congress was eventually able to reconvene later that night.