Five Years Later

The gallows were real. So were the zip ties, the bear spray, the broken windows, and the politicians cowering under desks while their constituents hunted them through the Capitol. But five years after January 6, 2021, half of America remembers an insurrection while the other half sees a protest that got out of hand. That disconnect might be more dangerous than the riot itself.

Donald Trump spent two months after losing the 2020 election telling his supporters the victory had been stolen. No evidence existed. Dozens of lawsuits failed. His own attorney general said the fraud claims were bullshit. None of that mattered because Trump's base believed him, and belief doesn't require proof when grievance runs deep enough.

So they showed up in Washington on January 6 ready to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's win. They breached police barricades after 1:00 PM, overwhelmed officers, and stormed the building. Over 140 law enforcement personnel got injured. Ashli Babbitt tried climbing through a broken window near the House chamber and got shot dead by Capitol Police. Three other rioters died from medical emergencies. Another woman got trampled by the mob.

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick collapsed after engaging with rioters and died the next day from strokes the medical examiner ruled as natural causes. Four officers who responded that day later died by suicide. Whether January 6 killed them is a question that can't be answered with an autopsy report.

Congress hid in secure locations while the mob roamed freely through the building, taking selfies in the Senate chamber and rifling through Nancy Pelosi's office. Mike Pence got evacuated with his family because the crowd was chanting about hanging him for refusing to overturn the election results. The Vice President's main crime was following the Constitution instead of his boss's demands.

By 3:40 AM on January 7, Congress reconvened and certified Biden's victory. Democracy survived, but barely. The peaceful transfer of power had been violently disrupted for the first time in American history, and pretending otherwise requires deliberate amnesia.

More than 1,500 people faced federal charges. Over 1,000 convictions were secured. Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader who wasn't even at the Capitol that day but coordinated the attack, got 22 years for seditious conspiracy. Others received probation. The sentences varied wildly depending on what prosecutors could prove and what judges believed about culpability.

Trump got federally indicted for his role in trying to overturn the election. Then he won the 2024 presidential race, and Special Counsel Jack Smith dropped the case because Justice Department policy prohibits prosecuting sitting presidents. Trump returned to the White House, and within hours, he pardoned nearly 1,600 January 6 defendants. All of them. He commuted sentences for 14 violent extremist leaders and granted full pardons to everyone else, including those convicted of assaulting police officers. He called them patriots. Opponents called it obstruction of justice with a presidential seal.

Republicans can't agree on what happened. Some still call it an insurrection and condemn the violence. Others have relabeled the rioters as political prisoners persecuted by a partisan justice system. Trump himself oscillates between claiming he had nothing to do with it and promising more pardons for those who did. The cognitive dissonance would be impressive if it weren't so disturbing.

Trump hasn't been content with pardons alone. On the fifth anniversary, he launched a White House website accusing Democrats of staging "the real insurrection" by certifying what he called a fraud-ridden election. Pelosi's face dominates the page alongside members of the January 6 committee. The president complained that media never reported his words to "walk or march peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol," conveniently ignoring the hours of incendiary rhetoric that preceded that single phrase. The website claims Democrats "masterfully reversed reality" and weaponized federal agencies to hunt down dissenters.

Democrats have turned January 6 into their defining political narrative. Every election since has been framed as democracy hanging in the balance. The House Select Committee held televised hearings in 2022 showing evidence that Trump knew he lost but pursued illegal schemes anyway. Then Republicans retook the House, dissolved the committee, and disputed its findings. Nothing has been resolved except that both sides now have more ammunition for their grievances.

And so the dilly-dally continues.

The Capitol added more fences, more guards, more metal detectors. Security theater to patch over the real problem. They fixed the broken windows but the source remains untouched: a country that can't agree if what happened was treason or tourism.

@Santitos

@salinasmariasantos

Copyright © 2026 Maria Santos Salinas for FRONTeras.