John Daniel Davidson of the Federalist promotes a useful way to respond to concerns about the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
Monday marked the four-year anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, when tens of thousands of peaceful Trump supporters demonstrated outside the U.S. Capitol and a small number of them clashed with police before entering the Capitol itself.
For Democrats and the left, Jan. 6 is the events that vindicates their hatred of Donald Trump and his supporters. They would have us believe it was among the darkest days in our nation’s history, when democracy itself hung in the balance and violent insurrectionists nearly prevented the peaceful transfer of power. Many of them actually believe and still repeat, as Sen. Amy Klobuchar did on Monday, that pro-Trump rioters killed police officers on Jan. 6. Above all, they insist that President Trump was responsible for the riots and chaos of that day, that he planned and instigated it and stood by while it unfolded.
That’s all a lie, of course. Trump supported a calm and peaceful demonstration outside the U.S. Capitol, he urged Democrat leaders to beef up security ahead of the demonstration (they ignored him), and he called for end to the violence soon after it broke out. The transfer of power was never in jeopardy, and the only loss of life was the unjustified killing of an unarmed woman by a Capitol police officer.
Indeed, the real tragedy of Jan. 6 wasn’t what happened on that day but what happened afterwards, when the Biden administration weaponized the Justice Department and the FBI to prosecute more than 1,500 people, the vast majority of whom did nothing wrong.
That weaponization continues to this day. Politico reported on Monday that federal prosecutors are still trying to decide whether to charge an additional 200 people for their alleged involvement in the events of Jan. 6, “including 60 suspected of assaulting or impeding police officers during the riot.”
