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topicnews · October 17, 2024

Trump drops pretense and refers to January 6 insurrectionists as “us”

Trump drops pretense and refers to January 6 insurrectionists as “us”

Aaron Blake
| Washington Post

Shortly after the dust settled on January 6, 2021, Donald Trump’s allies went to great lengths to distance the then-president from the insurrectionists who stormed the US Capitol. They falsely linked the attack to Antifa and alleged government “provocateurs” — claims that were baseless then and now.

“These people don’t look like Trump supporters,” claimed Newsmax anchor Greg Kelly. Fox News host Laura Ingraham said rioters were “people who can only be described as antithetical to the MAGA movement.” Trump’s impeachment lawyers claimed he was “appalled” by the violence.

Over the past four years, however, Trump himself has increasingly expressed sympathy for the rioters – not just for their humanity and alleged legal persecution (he has repeatedly issued pardons), but also for their actions. He was clearly trying to turn this day from a day of national shame into one that should be celebrated in many ways.

This culminated on Wednesday evening in a very appropriate word: “we”.

During his appearance at a town hall hosted by Univision, Trump was confronted by a self-described Republican named Ramiro González, who viewed Trump’s behavior around January 6 as a dealbreaker for him. González called on Trump to enlist his support.

But Trump made no apology for that day. What he did instead was actual link themselves against the rioters – stronger than ever before.

“There were no weapons down there; “We didn’t have guns,” Trump said, repeating: “The others had guns, but we didn’t.”

The first thing to note is that this is wrong; Trump supporters had guns and lots of other weapons. But also consider what Trump has done rhetorically. He portrayed the insurgents as “we.”

This is actually not the first time that Trump has appeared to do this. But last time, Trump’s comments weren’t so clear, and he apparently caught himself. At last month’s presidential debate, Trump quoted “we” before moving on to “this group of people.”

“And no one on the other side was killed,” Trump said during the debate, referring to the death of his supporter Ashli ​​Babbitt, who was shot as she crawled through a broken window near the House chamber. Trump added, “But we didn’t do it – that group of people who were treated so badly,” without finishing the thought.

In fact, three police officers died shortly after the January 6 attack. And if Trump’s opinion wasn’t clear during the debate, it became abundantly clear Wednesday night.

The police are the “other side” and “the others”. The insurgents are “us.”

Given his stilted response at the debate, one wonders how intentional this was and whether Trump simply made a mistake by calling the rioters “we.”

Trump clearly wants people to forget and misunderstand the events of January 6th, because it was the biggest flaw in his presidency; A historic number of Republicans voted to impeach and convict him, and many others acquitted him on a technicality – but still blamed him to varying degrees.

One could certainly also argue that Trump calling this day a day of celebration is serving his more authoritarian impulses; These were people who rose up in his name, and there’s a lot of evidence that he liked that and wanted to encourage that kind of impulse in his base.

And there is evidence that his and his allies’ efforts to combat the Jan. 6 revisionism have blunted its impact on the 2024 election campaign. Republican voters all but dismissed this as a concern and overwhelmingly embraced it. The most striking poll in mid-2022 showed that the share of Republicans calling it a “legitimate protest” had increased, while those calling it an “insurrection” and even “riot” fell sharply compared to the previous year. More actually called it a “legitimate protest” rather than a “riot.”

But there is also a danger that the broader electorate will become so closely aligned with the rioters, for whom Americans at large have little sympathy.

A Washington Post/University of Maryland poll this year found that just 12 percent of Americans said the rioters “defended democracy,” while a clear majority — 58 percent — said they “threatened democracy.”

Even within the Republican Party, there are limits to how much support the rioters can provide. Less than half of Republicans in that poll agreed with Trump that the sentences for the Jan. 6 defendants were “too harsh.” Another poll last year found that only 24 percent of Republican primary voters preferred a candidate who supported those who entered the Capitol.

It’s possible that has changed somewhat as Trump increasingly embraces the rioters as the 2024 election progresses; We don’t have a lot of good, recent data.

But these numbers seem to confirm that Trump is indeed testing Americans’ willingness to write off this day and his supporters’ willingness to lump themselves in with that “we.” And it’s not just an election issue in 2024; It is also a more lasting test of the strength of our democracy.

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