One Year Ago This Week: Looking Back At Warnings Before The Capitol Attack
It has been almost a year since the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building was carried out by angry people carrying Trump flags and wearing MAGA merch. The far-right spent 2021 trying to juggle two competing claims: that these attackers were not actually Trump supporters, but left-wing activists trying to make Donald Trump look bad; and that these were in fact Trump supporters who were in fact great patriots fighting to save the nation by threatening to hang the Vice President and storming the Capitol.
Now as the anniversary approaches, political figures, media reporters, and other prominent influencers are reminding us of mini-anniversaries leading up to the event, and the warnings that went unheeded.
George Conway, an anti-Trump conservative who was in the spotlight for his activism while his wife served as Trump’s campaign manager and spokesperson, shared a Mediaite article from January 4th of last year, in which he warned that Trump was “stirring up crazies” to do “Lord knows what,” citing a passage from the article quoting his warnings.
A year ago this morning. https://t.co/a2HfjhzxYc pic.twitter.com/S11ycN4PhZ
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) January 4, 2022
Journalist Aaron Rupar also reminded followers of Senator Josh Hawley’s claims only days before the attack that something could happen on January 6th to change the outcome of the election. In the clip below, he’s appearing on Fox News to speak to Bret Baier, who asks if he’s really under the impression that Trump could still be POTUS after January 20th, and responds, “Well, that depends on what happens Wednesday [January 6th].”
BRET BAIER: I want to pin you down on what you're trying to do. Are you trying to say that Trump will be president after January 20?
JOSH HAWLEY: Well, that depends on what happens on Wednesday
BAIER: No it doesn't
(Trump in fact lost an election!) pic.twitter.com/vsO2JyRJuk
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 5, 2021
Part of the effort of the January 6th Committee is to determine if any Trump allies and insiders knew in advance that the attack was coming.
Of course, we’re also passing anniversaries of some of Trump’s clearest efforts to influence the confirmation of the election, such as his call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to “find” enough votes to flip the state’s election results.
Citizens for Ethics (CREW) took time out to remind us of their criminal complaint filed after that call became public information, although the investigation is still ongoing a year lter.
A year ago today, we filed a criminal complaint against Trump for apparently violating multiple laws when he pressured Georgia's Secretary of State to overturn the results of Georgia’s presidential election. The Fulton County DA is investigating. Trump must be held accountable. https://t.co/QjrxKthDql
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) January 4, 2022
Of course, political hopefuls are chiming in too, with Marcus Flowers, who hopes to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in her Congressional seat, chiming in to remind us that at this time last year, she too was encouraging Trump’s supporters to gather at the Capital.
A year ago, Marjorie Taylor Greene was telling Trump supporters to come to the Capitol on January 6th.
We must hold her accountable.
— Marcus Flowers (@Marcus4Georgia) January 4, 2022
Of course, many of her old tweets are gone along with the deletion of her personal ccount, but Politiwoops has documented some relevant deleted ones from January 2021, including calling for people to join her in “hold[ing] the line” and “fight[ing] for Trump.”
In two days, Trump has an event scheduled to rail about purported election fraud on the anniversary of the attack — but in the meantime, so many of these smaller this-time-last-year stories seem to echo the warnings that went unheeded last year.
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