After the disputed 2020 election with questionable results in numerous states, millions of President Trump’s supporters were enraged. There were election challenges and protests across the country.
The major protest on January 6 in Washington, D.C. was the culmination of weeks of rallies across the country. Although estimates vary widely, the January 6 rally featuring President Trump attracted at least 500,000 supporters.
The overwhelming majority of the participants heeded President Trump’s plea to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” Some participants marched to the U.S. Capitol, and about 900 people entered the building.
Research from the staff of U.S. senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) shows that approximately 40% of those who entered the U.S. Capitol were allowed into the building by the police. Among the rest, those who committed vandalism or assault should be prosecuted. The others may have entered the building illegally, but their actions do not rise to the level of terrorism.
It has not stopped some far-left activists masquerading as analysts from claiming that the events of January 6 were worse than 9/11, the day that the country was attacked by Islamic terrorists, which resulted in the deaths of 2,977 innocent people. According to Steve Schmidt, co-founder of the disgraced Lincoln Project, “[t]he 1/6 attack for the future of the country is a profoundly more dangerous event than the 9/11 attacks, and in the end, the 1/6 attacks are likely to kill a lot more Americans than were killed in the 9/11 attacks.”
This claim is beyond ludicrous, for the 9/11 attack prompted a U.S. military response and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that claimed the lives of over 7,000 brave members of the United States military, 8,000 contractors, and an untold number of innocent citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In contrast, five people died on January 6, including four of natural causes. The only person to be killed on that fateful day was Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and Trump-supporter, who was unarmed. She was killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer who has been allowed to remain anonymous.
