One year after the Jan. 6 insurrection; what came after?

Alexia Barton, Assistant Print Editor

On Jan. 6, 2021, there was an insurrection at the Capitol following the decision of the 2020 election. Five people were killed and 140 police officers were assaulted. It has been one year since the attack and with that, new information has been released.

The investigation of the people involved is still ongoing with 725 people arrested, 165 of them pleading guilty. Estimates show between 2,000 to 2,500 people involved in the riot with evidence for investigators to continue to sort through.

Several lawmakers throughout the day held a candlelight vigil on the Capitol building steps in memory of the event that took place.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said the event was to honor the people who defended the capitol building.

“We prayerfully mark one year since the insurrection and patriotically honor the heroes who defended the Capitol and our democracy that day,” said Pelosi (Washington Post).

President Joe Biden also made a speech recounting the events of that day, where he stated that former president Donald Trump was at fault for the attack because of his unwillingness to accept the results of the election.

“Our democracy held. We the people endured. And we the people prevailed.

For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol,” said the President (CNN).

Trump responded to Biden’s speech and said that Biden’s words were a way to shift the focus off of what happened with the 2020 election.

“Why is it that the Unselect Committee of totally partisan political hacks, whose judgment has long ago been made, not discussing the rigged Presidential Election of 2020? It’s because they don’t have the answers or justifications for what happened,” said Trump (Fox8).