BY LAURYN BECKER
What started on January 6 of last year as a day to confirm the votes of the 2020 election turned into a day of rage, fire, and tragedy.
As the counting of electoral votes began, President Trump, who lost the 2020 election, made an announcement, according to History.com saying, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
After this announcement, thousands of rioters began marching towards the Capitol. By 2:00 p.m. that day, rioters were storming into the Capitol building, breaking down police barricades, and fighting with police, resulting in hundreds injured and five dead.
Upon the one-year anniversary of the horrid attack, congress is still working to recover. According to the Washington Post, there are many members of the House, and other Capitol staff members who are recovering from the attack through the help of counselors.
Congress is still continuing on edge as the days carry on, and every day there are more and more threats against the Capitol. In fact, in 2021 alone there have been over 9,600 threats to Congress and the Capitol according to the Washington Post. That number has risen drastically due to the fact that there were less than 4,000 threats in 2017.
In the House of Representatives, the tension has continued to rise. The Washington Post states that there are still several House Democrats that refuse to vote in favor of any legislation that is proposed by any Republican House member that was in favor of not certifying Joe Biden’s Presidential victory.
As the anniversary of January 6 looms over D.C., so does fear. Many Congress members fear that a repeat may happen again, or something even worse. Many opinionated articles believe that the attack last year was just practice and that a repeat could be 10x worse than what happened a year ago.
Overall, a year after the January 6 attack, it’s safe to say that it was an eye-opening attack for all of America, and those wounds are still there even a year later.
For more about the Capitol Attacks, go to
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/03/january-6-congress/
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-6-capitol-riot