4 Years Later: Americans Still Divided Over January 6

When a large mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election, the images of the chaos unfolding at the historic building sent shockwaves around the world. After all, this was the United States, once a shining light of democracy, on the precipice of political collapse. Fast forward four years and Donald Trump, the man who was widely condemned (even by members of his own party) and later indicted for his role in the proceedings, is about to return to the White House. 

Trump’s political comeback, which seemed impossible in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the Capitol, was accompanied by a gradual re-telling of the events of January 6. Back in 2021, Trump himself described the events as a “heinous attack on the United States Capitol”, promising that the protesters who had “defiled the seat of American democracy” would pay for their actions. And pay they did. As of December 6, 2024, the U.S. Justice Department had charged more than 1,500 individuals for federal crimes associated with the Capitol breach, of which almost 1,000 plead guilty to at least some of the charges and another 255 were found guilty in trial. And yet, in October 2024, Trump – now the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election – no longer condemned the events of January 6, instead calling it “a day of love”, much to the outrage of the 138 police officers injured during the attack. 

And like Trump’s stance on the January rioters has softened – he even promised to pardon the “peaceful protesters” last May – so has the public view of what happened that day, at least among Republican voters. According to a recent poll conducted by YouGov and The Economist, 56 percent of Republicans would describe the January 6 events as “people participating in legitimate political discourse”, while just 19 percent would describe the scenes as a violent insurrection. Unsurprisingly, Democrats have opposing views of what happened, with 79 percent describing the events as a violent insurrection and just 9 percent seeing it as legitimate political protest.