On a cold and gray January afternoon, lawmakers gathered on Capitol Hill for what’s typically a mundane task – tallying the Electoral College votes from November’s election, officially certifying Democrat Joe Biden as the winner two weeks before his inauguration as the 46th president of the United States.
The events that unfolded that day were anything but typical.
The day would soon turn chaotic when thousands of supporters of then-President Donald Trump, spurred on by false claims of election fraud by the then-president, violently stormed the Capitol, many intent on stopping Congress from counting the votes.
Congress ultimately fulfilled its duty and certified Biden as president. But the insurrection resulted in five deaths, hundreds of arrests, an impeachment trial and a number of still-ongoing federal investigations.
Below is a timeline of the events on Jan. 6, 2021, and their aftermath. Watch a visual timeline in the video player above.
Trump begins speaking to his supporters just south of the White House and near the National Mall, rallying them as lawmakers gathered on Capitol Hill to count the electoral college votes.
He speaks to thousands in the crowd, calling them “American patriots” and insisting he won the election, to which they respond with chants such as “Stop the steal!” and “Fight for Trump!”
“We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen,” Trump tells the...
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