Rival vigils are being planned on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, both by a right-wing group that insists those charged in the insurrection are political prisoners and liberal organizations marking the date by urging Congress and President Biden to pass federal legislation to protect voting rights.
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These vigils planned for Jan. 6 — one year after a mob supporting President Donald Trump and his false claims of election fraud stormed the seat of the U.S. government, brawled with police and disrupted Congress during the certification of Biden’s election victory — reflect the nation’s splintered view of reality that is increasingly determined by a person’s political party rather than a shared set of facts.
“Ideas about election fraud have now rooted themselves so deeply in the Republican Party … where we have a big chunk of the population who doesn’t believe in our democratic system anymore,” said Heidi Beirich, a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism and former director of intelligence at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “In this country, red and blue are so far apart in terms of what they see as reality.”
The Attack: The Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol was neither a spontaneous act nor an isolated event.
Dozens of liberal groups are organizing vigils across the country to remember the deadly attack on the country’s democracy by demanding lawmakers protect voting rights. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also indicated on Monday that there will be a “full program of events” to mark the anniversary.
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At the same time, Look Ahead America, the right-wing group behind the widely anticipated but sparsely attended “Justice for J6” rally in September, announced on Monday its plans for a vigil outside the D.C. jail. They argue that those charged in the riot are being held unfairly there.
D.C. Department of Corrections and D.C. police officials did not immediately respond on Monday to a request for comment.
Look Ahead America had also organized a protest in front of the jail in July, when about 100 people rallied in support of those charged in the insurrection, chanting, “Let them go!” The group’s rally in September, held outside the U.S. Capitol, amassed much more attention and a heightened security response from local and federal agencies and the reinstallation of the temporary Capitol perimeter fencing.
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On the day of the September rally, journalists, police officers and counterprotesters outnumbered the demonstrators.
How Americans morphed into a mob at the Capitol insurrection
Matt Braynard, Look Ahead America’s executive director, denies there ever was an insurrection, echoing conservative talking points that hundreds of people charged in the storming of the U.S. Capitol are now being persecuted for a nonviolent political protest.
The group will also be honoring Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer as she attempted to breach a set of doors inside the Capitol during the riot, and Rosanne Boyland, who authorities said had been “trampled by the mob.”
Others died as a result of the attack as well, including Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick, who was sprayed with a chemical irritant, suffered two strokes and died the next day.
Judge calls for Justice Dept. civil rights probe into D.C. jail’s treatment of Jan. 6 detainees
Braynard said he does not know how many people will attend the vigil outside the jail, but plans include gathering from 6 to 7 p.m. with supporters singing hymns such as “Amazing Grace.” The group said it will announce other anniversary vigils across the country in the coming weeks.
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“We’ve got to keep the focus on this,” Braynard said. “We’ve got to continue to shift public opinion.”
Capitol Police say ‘Justice for J6’ rally in September cost roughly $1.3 million
Nearly 3 in 4 Republicans surveyed in early November in a Monmouth University poll said Biden won the presidential election due to voter fraud. About one-third of Americans overall agree with this false assertion — a percentage that has not moved much in the past year, according to the poll.
Furthermore, a September survey from the Pew Research Center showed a growing partisan gap regarding whether Americans think it is important to prosecute people who stormed the Capitol, with Republicans finding it less important over time.
Specifically, the percentage of Republicans who said it was important to prosecute rioters fells from 79 percent in March to 57 percent in September. During that same time, the percentage of Republicans who said it is very important to prosecute rioters dropped from 50 percent to 27 percent, the survey showed.
Court hearings, guilty pleas belie right-wing recasting of Jan. 6 defendants as persecuted patriots
People from across the country converged on the nation’s capital on Jan. 6 and listened to Trump say during his Save America rally on the White House Ellipse that Democrats committed massive voter fraud and rigged the election. And they believed him.
The way this falsehood spread and gained power among large portions of the population concerns Jonah Minkoff-Zern, co-director of Public Citizen’s Democracy is for People campaign. Liberal organizations are working together to push back on false counternarratives about the insurrection and emphasize the need to protect democracy through federal voting rights protections.
Republican-led legislatures across the country have introduced and passed restrictive voting legislation since Trump and his allies repeatedly pushed false claims of widespread voter fraud costing him the 2020 election. Voting rights advocates and Democrats continue pushing back, demanding federal voting protections to counteract restrictive voting laws.
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Minkoff-Zern said organizers of January 6th: Day of Remembrance and Action are calling on Congress and President Biden to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, a federal voting rights bill, and the Protecting Our Democracy Act, a bill that includes reforming oversight of the executive branch, among other legislation.
The vigil is scheduled to take place outside the Capitol at 4:30 p.m., though a location has not yet been finalized, Minkoff-Zern said. There will be similar vigils across the country.
“The uprising against the U.S. democracy didn’t end on January 6 and has continued in state houses that have passed laws to undermine our freedom to vote,” Minkoff-Zern said. “The fact that there’s any discussion of counterevents or other such events than what we’re planning speaks to the need of continued vigilance for our democracy.”
Scott Clement contributed to this report.