9). Case Study: Storming of the US Capitol
Figure 7: (Eric Lee/Bloomberg 2021)
What Happened? The final case study that this report will explore is the storming of the US Capitol building by a mob of Donald Trump supporters on January 6th, 2021. This occurred following Donald Trump’s 2020 Presidential Election loss where the former president had made consistent claims against the credibility of the election including that “this fake election can no longer stand” (Axelrod 2022). Hereby instigating a lack of trust in the institution of democracy amongst his supporters. Trump announced the demonstration to halt the certification of Biden’s victory and his supporters answered the call with Trump instructing them to “fight like hell” (Conrad 2023). During the attack, rioters broke into the building past police officers, vandalised offices, smashed windows amongst other illegal actions with dangerous intentions (Kaur 2021). The attack resulted in the delay of the counting of electoral votes by several hours in addition to over nine hundred arrests. As well as five deaths from the attack and four from officer suicides in the months following. With over $2.7 millions of damage to the Capitol building and grounds (US Attorney’s Office 2023).
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