Democrats spent the years after the Jan. 6 riot deeming President-elect Donald Trump unfit for office, but with voters returning him to the White House anyway, party leadership is now left weighing a new defining message.
For Republican strategist John Feehery, the politics of the Jan. 6 riot were never “potent” for Democrats despite prime-time public hearings by the Jan. 6 committee into the incident, during which Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was shot by police and 174 officers were injured, with some committing suicide in the months after.
“Complete waste of time and energy for the Democrats,” Feehery told the Washington Examiner. “Instead of spending time talking about issues the voters cared about, they wasted time talking about a mostly peaceful protest that really only resonated with those who watch MSNBC.”
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Still, exit polling from last year’s election found 34% of respondents indicating that democracy was their top concern, whereas 31% said the economy mattered to them most, according to NBC.
Democrats used the Capitol riot to assert that Trump posed a threat to the rule of law.
President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris attempted to appeal to that 34% with their respective campaigns’ rhetoric regarding democracy and freedom.
“Nearly 250 years ago, America was born when we wrested freedom from a petty tyrant,” Harris told a crowd at the Ellipse, the site of Trump’s Jan. 6 rally, the week before Election Day. “These United States of America, we are not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators.”
Nonetheless, Trump trounced his way to a 312-226 Electoral College win, pulling in a 2.3 million popular vote margin over Harris. Those results are set to be certified on Monday, the fourth anniversary of the Capitol riot.
Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, though she has not conducted polling recently, contended that “right after the election,” the Jan. 6 riot “was still [politically] potent with Democrats.”
“Voters generally still want accountability,” Lake told the Washington Examiner. “They were also animated against pardoning Jan. 6 people who have been convicted of crimes.”
Simultaneously, Suffolk University Political Research Center Director David Paleologos argued the political potency of the Jan. 6 riot has “faded over time.”
“In the January 2021 Suffolk-USA Today national poll released after the attack, 70% of voters said the rioters were criminals, 24% said they went too far but had a point, and 2% believed they acted appropriately,” Paleologos told the Washington Examiner. “By the end of 2023, less than half (48%) called the perpetrators criminals while 44% believed they had a point or acted appropriately.”
“By 2024, the top two issues on the minds of voters were the economy and immigration, which were overwhelming winners for Donald Trump, while Jan. 6, 2021, became a footnote,” Paleologos added.
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When reporters asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about Biden’s plans for Jan. 6 during a briefing last week, she said that “nothing has changed” with respect to his position on the riot.
“This is a president that has spoken multiple times in the last four years and beyond about democracy, the importance of democracy, protecting our democracy, and so I would expect that he will continue to be steadfast on that,” Jean-Pierre told reporters on Friday.
But the thrust of Biden’s messaging will be about the New Orleans attack on New Year’s Day, with a visit to the city on Monday.
While Biden may be spending the day in New Orleans before his trips to California and Italy later in the week, he did spotlight the work of the House Jan. 6 committee, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, last week by awarding them Presidential Citizens Medals at the White House.
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“Together, you embody, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, the central truth of our great nation,” Biden told the crowd gathered for the ceremony on Thursday. “Our democracy begins and ends with the duties of citizenship. That’s our work for the ages. That’s what all of you, I mean this, all of you embody.”
Although little public programming has been organized for Jan. 6, former Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Trump critic, and his political action committee Country First have organized a letter drive for police officers at or called to the riot.
“As we approach the fourth anniversary of the attack on the United States Capitol and our democracy, we must take a moment to reflect on the courage and sacrifice of the men and women who stood in harm’s way to defend our nation that day,” Country First wrote in an email. “While some, like Donald Trump, claim to ‘Back the Blue,’ their actions tell a different story — pledging to pardon rioters who attacked police officers, assaulted police officers and used weapons like bear spray and tasers against police officers, is not supportive of them, pardoning rioters dishonors them.”
For Trump’s part, Jan. 6 will continue to hold a place of political prominence after he promised to pardon some of the 1,572 defendants who have been charged in relation to the riot at the Capitol, more than 1,251 of whom have been convicted or pleaded guilty.
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“I’m going to be acting very quickly. First day,” Trump told NBC in December. “They’ve been in there for years, and they’re in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn’t even be allowed to be open.”
In the same interview, Trump reiterated that “everybody” involved with the House Jan. 6 committee, including Thompson and Cheney, “honestly, they should go to jail for what they did.”