Thursday marks exactly one year since the Capitol Insurrection that occurred in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, where Trump-supporting rioters infiltrated the US capitol as electoral votes were being counted to vote in Joe Biden as the new President of the United States.
Believing conspiracies that the 2020 US election were rigged, the rioters attacked the capitol with the agenda of overturning Trump's defeat. At least 75 people had entered "a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon," according to the US Department of Justice. The attempt to stop Congress from confirming Biden's victory was unsuccessful, but they succeeded in vandalizing property and taking hold of the building for several hours.
Trump himself believed the election was rigged and falsely claimed, along with many right-wing news outlets, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. Today, many supporters of the former president still believe the election was stolen from him.
Meanwhile, many that do not support the former president have accused him of encouraging the capitol riot. On December 19, 2020, Trump tweeted: "Big protests in DC on January 6. Be there. Will be wild!"
A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll concluded that almost three-fourths (72%) of Republicans believe that the former president bears just some or no responsibility for last year's event.
Five people died during the skirmish and over 100 police officers were injured. By August of last year, four police officers who responded to the capitol attack had committed suicide.
Officers on the scene testified that they had been beaten, taunted with racial slurs, and thought that they would die fighting the mob.
Later that afternoon on January 6, Trump released a video on Twitter, sticking to his claim that the election was "fraudulent" and telling his supporters to "go home in peace." He had also tweeted prior: "I am asking for everyone at the US Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order."
"This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace." Donald Trump has released a video as protesters storm the US Capitol. #9News pic.twitter.com/Y6iPtSwZ15
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) January 6, 2021
About 700 people involved in the attack have been arrested. The Washington Post reported that among those who took part in the riot were people on the FBI's terrorist watchlist, which include suspected white supremacists and Proud Boys members.
Bombs located at the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters were discovered, according to ABC News.
CNN reported back in March of last year that it had become a conspiracy theory among Republicans and right-wing media outlets that the Capitol Insurrection was caused by the Antifa movement and that the FBI had not found any evidence correlating the left-wing group to the January 6 event.
Outlets such as One America News have promoted conspiracies about Antifa's involvement, as well as politicians such as Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin who claimed that the group was responsible, the latter even claiming that Antifa members were "masquerading as Trump supporters," The Independent reported.
American politicians, many of them US senators and House representatives, were evacuated during the event. Sen. Chuck Schumer described the event, where he "feared for his life," in an interview with USA Today.
The attack led to the former president's second impeachment trial one week later for inciting the insurrection. Trump is the first president in US history to be impeached twice during his term.
The US House of Representatives passed a bill to investigate the attack on January 6, but was blocked by Senate Republicans. Instead, a select committee was formed comprised of both Democratic and Republican representatives to investigate the incident.
Furthermore, two days after the insurrection, Twitter Inc. issued a statement on their official blog that Trump would be permanently banned from the site "due to the risk of further incitement of violence." The company also made it clear that "violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action."
Even if Trump were to run for president again, the social media giant would still uphold its ban on him, according to NBC News.
Twitter had created a monitoring team on Tuesday to review the site for harmful content associated with the event. Multiple social media sites were accused of enabling extremists to organize the capital attack.
The event last year was the first breach of the US Capitol since the War of 1812 when the British attacked and burned the building.
Herb Keinon, Ron Kampeas/JTA and Reuters contributed to this report.