Coming Clean on J6

For four years, our elected leaders and their spokespersons routinely insisted that we not believe what we saw with our own eyes. Then, on November 5, the voters said “no more,” and now it’s time to set the record straight.
There is no better or more timely case in point than the supposed Donald Trump-inspired “insurrection” four years ago this week, on 1/6/21 — or “J6,” as it’s popularly called. Yes, the ugly and violent incursion into the U.S. Capitol by an unruly mob that day is something we’d all prefer to forget. And yes, it would be nice to believe that the reelection of Mr. Trump has put it behind us once and for all.
Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. The J6 matter is far from closed. Many Americans still believe Biden’s repeated assertion that J6 was “the greatest attack on American democracy since the Civil War” and the day “we almost lost it all.” For an event deemed so crucial to our nation’s past and future, we remain locked in political debate, still unable to separate fact from political spin.
But we saw it unfold that day, on live TV, in real time. And once again, we’re told not to believe our lying eyes. We know what insurrections look like — they topple governments, leaving swaths of death, destruction, and chaos.
Our J6 riot was nothing of the sort. It was briefly angry and disruptive — and then it was over. Only one shot was fired — that by a Capitol police lieutenant, tragically killing an unarmed female trespasser. The J6 riot should never have happened, but its net impact on our democratic process was nil; the planned election certification proceeded later that day. Calling it an insurrection is absurd.