On January 6, 2021, the U.S Capitol and America as a whole experienced a domestic terrorist attack from a group of individuals that thought the 2020 election was rigged, and that former President Trump should have won the election.

The group stormed the Capitol building holding multiple flags, including confederate, blue line, American, and Trump flags.

They labeled themselves as protesters but had made many remarks that expressed the want for harm of our elected officials while committing federal crimes of terrorism against our nation.

While there is evidence that these events were planned days ahead, there was still not a lot of police in and surrounding the capitol.

In one video, a police officer tried to keep the mob from going into the rooms that the officials were in by purposely leading the mob in the opposite direction of where the officials were being held.

The mob continued to be violent and beat a police officer to death with a fire extinguisher.

When they got into the Capitol, they took pictures of them sitting at Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi’s desk as well as holding up podiums. They were also caught stealing the Speaker of the House’s mail from her office.

The mob was also armed with guns, and pipe bombs were placed around the Capitol the night before.

While the insurrection at the Capitol was violent, other groups of people came to Washington, DC, for the “Stop the Steal” rally, but did not join in the violence or go inside the Capitol. They wanted to protest what they believed was a “rigged” election.

“A small group of us decided we wanted to go down to Washington D.C. to support the president,” Donna Pascarella of Rochester, New York stated about her choice to go to DC.
“We were looking around and there was a group that was very patriotic and were Trump supporters,” Pascarella stated. She stayed outside and had no intention of joining those who were there to do damage.

There were 234 people arrested and over 400 investigations opened after the riots. The FBI has come out about the investigations and said that 40 individuals were arrested for assaulting law enforcement, and 62 cases have made it to public federal court. There is still information wanted by the FBI about the attack and anything tied to it.