However, on January 6, 2021, when the congress was raided, this perception was shaken to its root. For the last two hundred years, the approval of the presidential elections in the USA by the Congress was normally considered only as a procedure. However, this procedure turned into a moment of reckoning on January 6, 2021, and for many observers, an event that shook the foundations of American democracy.
When senators and deputies met on January 6 last year at the American Congress, located in the Capitol Hill building in the capital Washington, to register Joe Biden’s presidential victory, then President Donald Trump was addressing his supporters. Far-right groups such as Proud Boys and QAnon, which feed on conspiracy theories along with the “big lies” of the right-wing media, from all over the country also believed that Biden stole the 2020 US presidential election, in line with Trump’s claims.
A crowd of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building that day in an attempt to “stop the theft,” and tried to stop Biden’s victory from becoming official. Four Trump supporters and a police officer were killed and 140 policemen were injured in the riot in Washington.
There was a common response of condemnation from both sides of the political spectrum, which is rare in the United States. Suzanne Spaulding, director of the Defense of Democratic Institutions project at the Center for Strategic and Development, evaluates the Republicans’ view of events after the raid as “There may have been a perception: OK. The border has been crossed. It’s gone too far. Trump has gone too far.”
Impeachment process failed
After the pressure, the impeachment process was started for the second time in Congress for Trump to be removed from his post before the presidential change will take place on January 20, 2021. However, although the process initiated for Trump passed the House of Representatives, as in the Ukraine scandal, it failed in the upper house of the US Congress, the Senate.
Spaulding explained this result, “I think in the weeks and months that followed (Trump), he continued to have a say over the Republican Party,” and pointed out that the former President also threatened Republican politicians who distanced himself from him. Investigations launched against Trump and many people around him on the grounds that they played a role in the uprising continue.
But the former President’s actions are legitimate for many, given the vast amount of false and false information circulating both on social media and in the mainstream media. A Monmouth University poll in June 2021 showed that about half of Republican voters believed the uprising was legitimate protest.
Ongoing judicial process
The information in the hands of the FBI, the American investigation bureau, is different. American police; Thanks to security camera recordings, YouTube videos and mobile phone footage, it has identified 727 people and filed a criminal complaint against them.
The charges include obstruction of official proceedings, use of dangerous weapons, and assault. Some of these people are fined as little as $500 without damaging property, while others continue to face charges of up to five years in prison for assaulting a police officer.
communication problem
After this congressional raid that shook the whole world, facts such as the effect of social media and mainstream media, how they tell or distort the facts are increasingly being examined and discussed in the USA.
According to Regina Lawrence, vice dean of the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Oregon, people are fueled by the more extreme content they are exposed to because of social media algorithms. That’s why political institutions need to express themselves more clearly regarding what happened on January 6, Lawrence says.
Stating that polarization on social media can be reduced with better communication, Lawrence says, “As hard as it is to do, there is good research that suggests really listening to people with these extreme views as much as possible and really understanding the reasons for what they believe.”
John Marshall
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