January 6. This date symbolizes all that went wrong in Donald Trump’s first administration and the multi-pronged effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Voting laws had been altered in the middle of the presidential campaign, with a record number of unsolicited mail-in ballots significantly boosting the prospects of challenger Joe Biden. Enraged Trump supporters reacted by inciting the infamous Capitol riot that led to more than a thousand arrests. Memories of that day are still ripe, especially among Democrats who unsuccessfully attempted to make it the foundation of their efforts to deny Trump a second term four years later.
But 2025 will be entirely different. Recollections of that fateful day four years ago will be replaced – at least in the minds of Trump supporters – by a moment that will most closely resemble what happened on this day 24 years ago.
The Height of Drama
Rewind to January 6, 2001, when the congressional certification of George W. Bush as the 43rd president of the United States was scheduled in the US Senate chamber. On that occasion, the sitting vice president and loser of the closest presidential election in history was tasked with certifying the victory of his opponent. How painful it must have been for Al Gore – who, as second in command under Bill Clinton, presided over the Senate – to bang the gavel and certify Bush’s victory.
For all the tight elections over the course of American history, 2001 represented a milestone likely to stand forever. Gore had essentially lost the national election by 537 votes in a single state: Florida. The month-long legal battle that ensued is the stuff of legend. The US Supreme Court ultimately halted a recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court, clearing the way for Bush to assume the presidency with one of the tightest electoral college margins in history: 271-266. Only the elections of 1824, when John Quincy Adams won the presidency based on a vote by the House, and 1876 when Rutherford B. Hayes was victorious by a single vote in the electoral college, came close to the election of 2001. For all the protests about the high court “handing” the victory to Bush, a subsequent exhaustive autopsy by the liberal Gannett News Service – the same company recently sued by Trump over the bogus last-minute poll showing Kamala Harris up three points in Iowa, when she wound up losing by 13 points – concluded that Bush had won Florida by just over 1,000 votes.
No less than 20 Democratic members of the House of Representatives challenged the results on January 6, 2001. But Gore invoked a law from more than a hundred years before requiring both a House member and a Senator to sponsor such challenges. With no Senator willing to co-sponsor, Gore ruled the objections out of order. It was the height of drama for a nation emotionally drained by a month of bitter legal battles with the presidency on the line.
January 6 Will Invoke Very Divergent Emotions
On January 6, 2025, Kamala Harris will, absent unforeseen events, serve in the same capacity as Al Gore 24 years ago, certifying the victory of Donald Trump. Of course, the outcome this time was one-sided and undisputed, so the drama attached to it will hardly reach the level of 24 years ago. Nevertheless, the site of Harris officially certifying the election of Donald Trump will undoubtedly stimulate a particular level of joy among Republicans, while most Democrats will likely avert their eyes, still reeling and deeply depressed over losing what both sides believed was the most important election in their lifetime.
In a turn of events that must be particularly galling to Democrats, some of the roughly 1,600 people who were arrested in the aftermath of 1/6/21 have sought permission to attend Trump’s second inauguration on January 20, per CBS News: “According to the latest Justice Department report, approximately 1,000 defendants have pleaded guilty. Roughly 600 have been charged with assaulting or resisting police. There are several fugitives being sought by federal agents, with more arrests still expected.” Many of those prosecuted for felonies or misdemeanors related to the Capitol riot have been subject to severe restrictions on their ability to return to Washington. On December 20, 2024, one of those indicted who has pleaded not guilty, Christopher Belliveau, argued that he is no threat to public safety.
Joe Biden’s Justice Department predictably countered his plea: "The last organized event the defendant attended in Washington, D.C., spiraled into a full-scale riot. This was the scene of his charged crime — a violent felony which contributed to the disruption of the peaceful transition of power … The most compelling reason to deny Belliveau's motion is that allowing his travel to Washington, D.C. places Capitol Police Officers in danger."
At least two others prosecuted for their role in the Capitol riot, Cindy Young and William Pope, have also petitioned the courts for the right to return to DC for Trump’s second inauguration. Few could credibly argue that such undoubtedly buoyant Trump supporters have in mind a repeat of the ugly events of 1/6/21. However, embittered Democrats will not let memories of that day go, even after a subsequent election that will return Trump to the ultimate seat of power. Especially disturbing for those on the left is Trump’s pledge to pardon or commute the sentences of many who were indicted and prosecuted for their participation in the Capitol riot. A recent poll by Napolitan News Service reveals that 34% of Americans believe that those arrested for participating in the January 6 upheaval were treated worse than the 2020 Black Lives Matter rioters, while 22% say the opposite, and 44% believe they were treated the same or are not sure.
In another act designed to embarrass his predecessor and successor, outgoing President Joe Biden has awarded Democrat Bennie Thompson and Trump-hating Republican Liz Cheney Presidential Citizens Awards – an honor only surpassed by the Presidential Medal of Freedom – for leading the congressional investigation into the Capitol riot. Be that as it may, that duo and their fellow travelers will be forced to suck it up today in the realization that defining Donald Trump by the events of this day four years ago is not a sentiment shared by the American people.
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