It has been one year since the US Capitol was stormed and desecrated by a mob of Trump-crazed insurrectionists intent on toppling our democracy. Shamefully, many of the men and women most responsible for the attempted coup remain in office or in positions of power, and the mastermind— the traitorous Trump himself— is ascendant as the likely presidential nominee for his party in two years.
And while hundreds of the “very fine people” who breached the building, assaulted police, menaced lawmakers and destroyed property that day have been arrested, not enough have been sentenced to prison terms. POLITICO, which has closely tracked arrests and sentencing from the event, reports that only one-tenth of those arrested in connection to the attack have been sentenced as of Jan. 1. Of those, just 30 have been jailed. The republic’s very survival is imperiled by the failure to prosecute the rioters and those who spurred them on.
This was not a bloodless coup attempt. People— including law enforcement officers— were killed and maimed. Bombs, thankfully undetonated, were planted. Weapons were employed. Zip tie restraints were carried in, apparently with an eye toward kidnapping officials— or worse. Chants of “Hang Mike Pence” echoed through the corridors.
The tear gas and smoke cleared quickly, but so, too, did the sense of shame and horror that was prevalent among Republican lawmakers in the immediate aftermath of the failed attack. Within days, they scurried back to their disgraced...
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