Law enforcement officials say the MAGA mob’s attempt to seize the Capitol and sow destruction took them by surprise, but it shouldn’t have.
Protesters flocked to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 because, in the fevered imagination of MAGA world, it represented the last chance to keep President Donald Trump in office. The protest was aimed squarely at pressuring members of Congress and the vice president to reject the reality of President-elect Joe Biden’s win and disrupt the counting of electoral votes. What brought rioters to Washington and fired them up was only taking place at one location—the Capitol.
Even if law enforcement officials couldn’t draw the inference that the Capitol would be a target of activists known to be violent, there were plenty of other clues—on social media, in the mouths of activists, and the tweets of the president himself—that indicated the protests wouldn’t be peaceful and would be focused squarely on the Capitol.
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Here are just a few:
Nov. 3: As Biden’s impending election victory becomes increasingly clearer, mentions of terms like “storm the capitol” and “occupy the capitol” on Parler, 4Chan, and 8kun, according to the Social Media Analysis Toolkit.
Dec. 13: Proud Boys protesters who descend on Washington, D.C., for the “Million MAGA March,” a pro-Trump rally, embark on a night of mayhem in which four people are stabbed in a brawl and two police are injured. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio allegedly burns a Black Lives Matter banner stolen from the Asbury United Methodist Church.
Dec. 19: Women for America First, the pro-Trump group that helped organize the Dec. 13 Million MAGA March, changes the date on its application for a rally permit from the day after the inauguration to Jan. 6, the date that Congress is set to tally electoral votes.
Dec. 19: While tweeting out a link to White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s bogus election fraud dossier, Trump calls for protests on Jan. 6 and promises, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
The same day, Trump supporters on TheDonald.win, a far-right pro-Trump social media site, appeared to seize on Congress as a target for the “wild” event. “Get into Capitol building, stand outside congress. Be in the room next to them. They wont have time to run if they play dumb,” one user writes.
Dec. 21: Taking a cue from the president’s Twitter branding of the Jan. 6 event as “wild,” Stop the Steal, a coalition of Trump supporters falsely claiming the election was stolen, registers wildprotest.com as a promotional site for the Jan. 6 event.
Dec. 26: Participants in a forum run by the Oath Keepers, a far-right organization made up largely of current and ex-military and law enforcement personnel, suggest the very real possibility of physical violence inside the Capitol itself. “Mconnell and the rest of the RINOS need to be physically thrown out of the building. Time for action. We will be there Jan. 6,” says one. Another commenter replies, “I stand ready with my rifle in one hand ,the 2nd amendment in the other, to defend this constitution of the United States of America. I stand ready to die for my country once again!”
Dec. 22-Jan. 5: Commenters on TheDonald begin to call for rallygoers to storm the Capitol and disrupt Vice President Mike Pence’s counting of electoral votes.
“Capital Building/Halls of Congress is ground zero. Jump the lines. Cross the roadblocks. Push past the robo cops. Don’t let them usher/kettle us to any other ‘symbolic’ monument,” one commenter posted.
Others post specific floor plan layouts of the Capitol alongside hopes of overwhelming law enforcement. “Find the tunnels. Arrest the worst traitors.” Posters also fixate on what they see as their ability to easily overwhelm the Capitol police, as “there are only around 2k of them,” and post memes that urge “The capitol is our goal. Everything else is a distraction.”
As the day of the protests draws nearer, the tone of some posts becomes more dire. In a post entitled, “Today I told my kids Goodbye,” self-described rallygoers speak of the event as a matter of life and death. “If it came down to it I wouldn't think twice about dying just so my family and friends can live free.”
Dec. 28: The Hotel Harrington, which Proud Boys members turned into a favorite haunt during visits to the District, announces that it will close its doors to guests from Jan. 4 through 6 as a result of “our concern and desire for everyone’s health and safety.”
Dec. 29: After the Hotel Harrington closes its doors to guests, Proud Boys founder Enrique Tarrio lashes out at the media and threatens that the group will “turn out in record numbers” on Jan. 6 despite the closure: “We will not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow. We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams.”
Far-right Trump fans on social media talk about a “Slumber Party inside the Capitol Building” in the wake of the closure.
Jan. 1: On an hour-long phone call, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund assures Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) that “they have everything under control, that they were on top of everything.”
Jan. 3: D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser warns residents to “stay out of the downtown area on Tuesday and Wednesday and not to engage with demonstrators who come to our city seeking confrontation.” In a tweet, Trump promises, “I will be there. Historic day!”
Jan. 4: Washington police chief Robert Contree references reports that protesters plan to come to the city with guns. “We have received some information that there are individuals intent on bringing firearms into our city, and that just will not be tolerated,” he says at a press conference.
Jan. 5: Rallygoers on board a flight to Washington, D.C., heckle Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), demanding he block the vote count. Three days earlier, protesters showed up at GOP Sen. Marco Rubio’s home in Florida to demand he interfere in the counting of electoral votes.
Jan 6: At the rally in Washington, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani demands “trial by combat” instead of vote counts to settle the election. Trump commands his supporters to march down to the Capitol and says, “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”
