On August 24, 1814, British troops entered Washington after defeating the American militia at the Battle of Bladensburg. They then burned the White House and the Capitol. Since that sad day, Washington DC has suffered civil war, countless major demonstrations, riots and unrest. But the Capitol, the architectural symbol of our democracy, has not been attacked and occupied since British humiliation.
The Capitol, the architectural symbol of our democracy, has not been attacked and occupied since British humiliation. Not until Wednesday.
That is, not until Wednesday, when a crowd of pro-Trump supporters stormed the building. One person was shot to death during the rebellion, and a Capitol police officer has now died from the injuries he sustained while defending the Capitol. According to the police, an explosive device was found outside the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and a second device was found near the offices of the Democratic National Committee.
City leaders, as well as federal officials, knew that violence could occur during or after the planned “Save America” rally in support of Trump’s baseless allegations of electoral fraud. Many businesses in central Washington closed the windows earlier in the week just in case. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was also arrested on arrival in Washington on Monday and ordered to leave the city.
But the spectacle that the Americans witnessed on their televisions raises several important questions. Why were federal and DC authorities apparently so unprepared for the crisis? And what does this portend for the few remaining days of Trump’s presidency – both for the security of our nation and for the future of our democracy?
On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had called the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, to see if there was a way to prevent Trump from accessing nuclear launch codes. This terrifying responsibility is one of the greatest burdens on any president as commander in chief. Over the past four years, Trump has repeatedly acted irrationally. But the past week has only reinforced his lack of fitness – a failure that could have catastrophic consequences.
Following the mob attack, President-elect Joe Biden demanded that Trump appear on national television to “fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege”. Perhaps embarrassed by Biden’s speech, Trump delivered a confused and incoherent message that urged people to go home peacefully, while at the same time reiterating his baseless claims that “the election was stolen”. He told those involved in the attack that “we love you”.
But Trump’s tweets were not necessarily the worst part of his response. The commander-in-chief seemed to have revoked his main responsibilities – to Congress and to the nation. The immediate response appears to have been addressed by Vice President Mike Pence. Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller announced that he and Milley of the Joint Chiefs had talked to the vice president and also to Congress leaders about how to respond to the situation.
The 9/11 Commission Report argued that one of the flaws revealed by the 2001 terrorist attack was a lack of “imagination”. This may also explain, at least in part, the terrible lack of preparedness on the part of federal agencies to deal with the protest. No one could “imagine” that an incumbent president of the United States would invite an exaggerated crowd to march on the Capitol. But that is exactly what Trump did. His speech at the “Save America” rally was preceded by incendiary comments from Rudy Giuliani and his son, Don Jr. Giuliani urged the crowd to resolve the electoral “dispute” with a “trial by combat”. The young Trump thanked the “red-blooded patriotic Americans” in the crowd, urging them to “fight for Donald Trump” and threatening Republican lawmakers who did not support his father. Senior Trump then called the crowd to “fight” and “show strength”. He said he would lead them on the march over the Capitol and vowed to “never give in”.
Some actions were taken before the planned protest. Mayor Muriel Bowser warned citizens to stay away from the city center and asked the Pentagon to put 340 DC National Guardsman on alert – a request that was approved by the Pentagon a few days in advance. The security of the country’s capital is complicated by the overlapping jurisdictions between the local government and federal agencies. Although a governor has direct control over the national guard of his respective state, the guard in Washington is under the control of the federal government, not the mayor. Federal agencies have the primary responsibility for protecting Capitol.
But in general, the lack of preparation of these organizations was impressive. Right-wing groups openly discussed carrying out a violent protest. These sites are routinely monitored by federal law enforcement agencies. Larry Schaefer, a veteran of the Capitol Police for more than 34 years noted, “We have a planned and well-known demonstration that is prone to violence in the past and threats to carry weapons – why wouldn’t you prepare as we did in the past? “
Unlike the disturbances that followed George Floyd’s death, the Department of Homeland Security (HLS) made no plans to send Customs and Border Protection agents to the demonstrations. They planned only a modest “rapid reaction force”. In fact, the acting secretary of homeland security, Chad Wolf, was in Bahrain. The Justice Department has placed only about 100 trained officials from the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington as a “reserve capacity”. There is also no evidence that other federal agencies, such as the Secret Service or the US Park Police, were deployed, as was the case during previous demonstrations.
It is clear that these efforts were insufficient, reflecting, at the very least, an imprecise assessment of the threat and poor coordination between municipal and federal authorities. Regarding the latter, federal and local authorities were still hurt by the militarized response to peaceful demonstrations in June. A senior (and anonymous) Pentagon official told the Washington Post, “Everyone has a lot of scarring and a lot of PTSD due to the domestic turmoil of the summer,” and nobody wanted to repeat that. He added: “We have learned our lessons and we will not be near the Capitol Building at all.”
The Capitol was finally declared clean on Wednesday night, while lawmakers worked until the early hours of the morning to finish counting electoral votes. But in the long run, our opponents in Moscow, Beijing and Tehran were delighted by a spectacle that clearly shakes the image of American democracy around the world. Our allies were certainly horrified. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described him as “shameful.”
The pointing finger has already started, which is predictable and perhaps necessary. Lack of preparation requires responsibility. An investigation conducted by Congress is essential in the aftermath to determine whether the failure of federal agencies was simply a matter of incompetence or something more deliberate on the part of senior administration officials.
But clearly, Trump wanted a confrontation. He urged the crowd to attack the Capitol and did little to stop the violence once the riot broke out.
The two most frightening weeks in recent memory occurred in October 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis. President John F. Kennedy said at the time that the possibility of nuclear war and the destruction of the nation were even. But this was an external threat – and the nation met in response.
The two weeks between now and the day of the inauguration can be just as scary. The coronavirus is on the rise and many Americans are facing a dire economic future. Tensions in the Middle East continue to rise. The agreement between the United States and the Taliban in Afghanistan is falling apart. North Korea probably has more nuclear weapons now than when Trump took office. The United States has just suffered one of the biggest cyber attacks in our history and, again, Russia is to blame.
In response to these enormous challenges, our president is in a spiral, focused only on how to escape reality. This moment may be the greatest internal threat to our security and democracy in American history. President Abraham Lincoln once remarked: “At what point then is danger expected to come? I reply that if it reaches us, it must spring up among us. It cannot come from outside. If destruction is our destiny, we must be yours. author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live all the time, or we will die by suicide. “
In one of his last tweets on Wednesday, Trump urged his supporters to “Remember this day forever”. All Americans and the whole world will always remember this day, but not for the reasons that Trump thinks.