workingclasshistory:

On this day, 6 January 2021, a crowd of supporters of Republican president Donald Trump, including white nationalists and neo-Nazis, attacked the US Capitol as part of an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Among the crowd were people waving Nazi flags, wearing sweatshirts praising the Holocaust and brandishing pro-slavery Confederate symbols. Also present were large numbers of white supremacists and members of far right paramilitary groups. Many attendees had brought weapons like handguns, rifles, stun guns, shotguns, machetes, pistols, bear spray, as well as plastic flex cuffs in order to take hostages.
Rioters, some of them carrying pro-police Blue Lives Matter flags, attacked police, injuring approximately 140 officers. Police injuries included broken ribs and spines, crush injuries and stab wounds. One officer died after the attack and four subsequently died by suicide. Four other people died on the day of the assault, one of them shot by police inside the Capitol.
Inside the Capitol building representatives, including Trump supporters, feared for their lives, desperately scrambled for safety, and sent text messages begging Trump to call off the attack.
Behind the scenes, Trump’s team had prepared a plan to essentially launch a coup and overturn the election, which Trump had lost by over 7 million votes. At the centre of the plan was an attempt to pressure Pence to not fulfil his constitutional role of counting votes, and instead declare Trump the victor. At a nearby rally on January 6, Trump called on his supporters to march on the Capitol to put pressure on Pence, which they did, bringing a noose and gallows and chanting “Hang Mike Pence”. A majority of Republicans in Congress then voted to overturn the election results. But the plan failed.
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