Donald Trump says the rioters who attacked police officers in the January 6 Capitol riot are “warriors.” That's not only wrong; it is dangerous.
On January 6, 2021, more than 2,000 supporters of then-President Trump stormed the United States Capitol in hopes of stopping the certification of President Biden's election. Many came armed with guns, knives, baseball bats, metal pipes, stun guns or bear spray, and used them to attack police. About 140 agents were attacked.
Over the next three years, prosecutors charged more than 1,400 of the rioters. More than 100 have been charged with causing serious injury to an officer or using a dangerous weapon. Several dozen are in prison awaiting trial.
Daniel Rodriguez of Fontana pleaded guilty to stunning a police officer in the neck with a Taser. A federal judge sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
Peter Schwartz of Owensboro, Kentucky, attacked police officers with pepper spray and a folding chair. He was sentenced to 14 years, largely because he had 38 previous criminal convictions.
Christopher Quaglin of North Brunswick, New Jersey, tackled a police officer and choked him. A Trump-appointed judge called him “a threat to our society” and sentenced him to 12 years.
For months, Trump has called defendants like them “hostages” and “political prisoners,” as if they were being unjustly held by a repressive regime — a grotesque lie meant to attack the justice system Trump wants to destroy.
But he recently gave the January 6 attackers a more heroic title.
“Those J6 warriors were warriors,” the former president said at a rally in Las Vegas. “But really, more than anything else, they were victims of what happened. “All they were doing was protesting a rigged election.”
That's a great promotion. “Warriors” is a word Americans generally apply to members of the armed forces, not militants who attack police officers with bear spray.
Trump has crossed the line from defending the January 6 detainees to praising them.
He has also promised to pardon most or all of them if he regains the White House.
The big problem is not how many it would forgive in 2025.
The problem is the message it is sending to extremists who might be tempted to act in 2024: if you fight for me, you too can count on walking free and being hailed as a hero.
It's a pretty loud whistle: It's just one step away from “stand back and wait,” Trump's instruction to the extremist Proud Boys during the 2020 campaign. (They stayed on the sidelines until Jan. 6, when they showed up to break down the doors of the Capitol).
Trump's praise of rioters has been accompanied by an ugly escalation of his language on other issues.
He has denounced his opponents as “vermin.” a word that generally suggests extermination. He has claimed that immigrants from Latin America, Asia and Africa are “poisoning our blood,” language once used by segregationists and Nazis.
And he has talked about getting revenge on Biden and others who he claims “rigged” his conviction by a New York jury on 34 felonies in state court. (There is no evidence that the Biden administration played any role.)
Terrorism scholars find all this worrying.
“Their message is escalating,” said Jon Lewis of George Washington University. “He's saying, 'We are warriors and we have to stop this tyranny.' It appears that he intends to prepare the basis for an imminent conflict that will require violence.”
Trump's pardon pledge serves a similar purpose, said Jacob Ware of the Council on Foreign Relations. “Prosecutions have two objectives: punishment and deterrence. He [Jan. 6 defendants] “They have been punished, but Trump's language has eroded any deterrence.”
It comes at a dangerous time. In its annual threat assessment, the Department of Homeland Security warned that any presidential election increases the risk of domestic terrorism.
The groups that led the January 6 attack have retreated in the face of prosecutions, but they have not disappeared. Members of the Proud Boys have appeared at Trump rallies in North Carolina and New Jersey, apparently to recruit new members. Other organizations, including the Active Clubs network, successor to the California-based white supremacist Rise Above Movement, have been growing.
Federal law enforcement agencies have stepped up their attention to those threats but have tried to keep a low profile.
“There is a lot of concern [in the federal government} about election violence,” said Ware, coauthor of a recent book on domestic extremism, “God, Guns and Sedition.”
“My worry is that conspiracy theories are so deeply entrenched in the [pro-Trump] movement, anything the federal government tries to do will be seen as escalation. Efforts to protect vote counters will be presented as efforts to “protect theft.” Educational efforts will be dismissed as 'fake news,'” she stated. “Therefore, it can be more effective for state and local governments and civil society. [nongovernmental organizations] to take the initiative.”
One focus of state efforts will be to protect vote counting sites, especially in swing states with a history of slow tabulation: Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
However, the first step is to take the problem seriously.
It's not just about Trump being Trump.
He claims to be a defender of law and order, but is in favor of violence if it helps him seize power, and proclaims it in plain sight.
