Author: Common Dreams

The U.S. Capitol building was assaulted and occupied on January 6 by an angry and violent insurrectionary mob incited by Donald Trump and his closest family members and cronies. Was it a “coup?” Republican House member Adam Kinzinger said so. Many have called it that. Republican Senator Mitt Romney called it an “insurrection.” Many have used this term as well. We can argue about which terms best apply and how, and also about the moral and legal implications of applying such terms. What is beyond argument is a fact: there was a violent takeover of Congress – the representative...

The far-right siege on the U.S. Capitol has been called “unbelievable,” “shocking,” and “beyond imagination.” And let’s not forget the attacks on statehouses around the nation and all the symbols hate deployed – guillotine, hangman’s noose, confederate and Nazi iconography, though they received far less coverage. I admit I felt shocked, glued to the coverage, waiting for some sort of intervention. It never materialized, five people died, dozens were injured, hundreds feared for their lives for hours under lockdown, and millions across the country were terrorized. Senator Chuck Schumer said January 6, 2021 is a new “day that will...

Pundits desperately searching for a historical analogy for the storming of the U.S. Capitol have seized on August 1814, when the British army burned the Capitol in retaliation for the U.S. assault on the Canadian capital a year earlier. But there’s a more apt comparison. Fifty years later, in July 1864, with the Civil War still raging, a Confederate army came within shooting distance of capturing Washington. Confederate Gen. Jubal Early could see the shining dome of the Capitol “feebly manned,” he later wrote, a mere six miles away. Though troop fatigue, summer heat, and the late arrival of...

In the hours after President Donald Trump yet again declared the press the “enemy of the people” in speech that incited his supporters to storm the halls of Congress on Wednesday, the pro-Trump mob chased journalists covering the chaos, destroyed their equipment, and even carved “murder the media” into a door at the U.S. Capitol. Reporters took to social media during and after the siege to share the alarming attacks, which were forcefully condemned by industry colleagues, union leaders, and journalism advocacy groups that have long condemned the president’s “media-bashing” and warned of its negative impacts on press freedom...

Hours after a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol Building in a flailing but dangerous attempt to overthrow the democratic process — an effort incited by President Donald Trump and abetted by GOP lawmakers — Congress certified President-elect Joe Biden’s decisive 306-232 Electoral College victory on January 7. The certification came after both the House and Senate resumed work following the eventual clearing of the Capitol, which was invaded and vandalized by Trump supporters on January 6 acting on the president’s incessant lies that the election was rigged and stolen from him—lies he continued to peddle even as his...

Demands that President Donald Trump be fully held to account for inciting the fascist mob that rampaged through the U.S. Capitol Building proliferated on January 6 as all utter turmoil gripped Washington DC, with members of Congress and journalists forced to seek shelter as the lame-duck incumbent’s supporters shattered windows and clashed with law enforcement. “Arrest the president,” tweeted New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. “I’m not joking. He incited a riot to try to sack the Congress and install himself in office. Our laws mean nothing if he can continue to live a free man.” Progressive activist Kai...