Amid the chaos and destruction of last Jan. 6, as he huddled with colleagues and aides in a stunningly vulnerable U.S. Capitol, Sen. Tim Kaine had an insight that he shared with a few confidantes: This was either the end of something, or just the beginning.
Donald Trump’s presidency seemed to be fizzling in almost “poetically perfect” fashion, Kaine would later say, with Trump’s followers engaged in a horrific assault on democracy that might expose the movement for what Kaine and many others long believed it to be.
That is, unless the chants and clashes lawmakers heard in a deadly blur of a day were mere warnings of something more ominous to come.
A full year later, Kaine said he still doesn’t know the answer to the question he posed that day.
"We have been under an intense stress test of our democracy," Kaine, D-Va., said in an interview with ABC News. "I can say we have survived it. I can’t yet say we’ve passed it."
The impact of the assault on the Capitol seemed clearer in the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6. Trump’s false election claims and the violent mob that followed -- plus his failure to quickly try to disperse the crowd -- led to Cabinet resignations, denunciations from virtually all leading elected Republicans and swift and bipartisan impeachment votes.
Yet after a brief period of repudiation, what came next was something of a vindication of the former president and his worldview.
Trump was not proven right on the facts -- not even close, as Trump continues to...
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