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Republican President Donald Trump did not win reelection in 2020. Trump claimed the Democrats stole the election, but his legal appeals to reverse the results were unsuccessful. The final stage was for Congress to officially count the electoral votes on January 6, 2021. Trump held an ill-advised rally in Washington, D.C., the same day. At the conclusion of Trump’s “Stop the Steal” speech, he instructed over a thousand supporters to march peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol building to have their voices heard.
As soon as Trump supporters gathered at the Capitol, mayhem and violence broke out. Trump supporters clashed with Capitol Police as others stormed the Capitol. Numerous people, including 174 police officers, sustained injuries during the commotion. Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol caused damage that exceeded 2.5 million.
The turmoil illegally delayed the formal electoral vote count by a few hours, but it did not prevent the transfer of power. The following day, a controversy started over how to describe the January 6th violence. Was it a riot or an insurrection?
Law enforcement eventually apprehended the participants on Jan. 6.
In 2022, Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, a practicing attorney and investigative journalist, wrote an opinion piece titled Stop Calling January 6th an ‘Insurrection.’ According to Shapiro, while the Jan. 6th participants faced serious criminal charges that should not go unaddressed, none of the defendants faced insurrection-related charges.” That’s because insurrection is a legal term with specific elements,” Shapiro explained. “Words have to have meaning, and the continuous mislabeling of the U.S. Capitol breach as an ‘insurrection’ is an example of how a false narrative can gain currency and cause dangerous injustice.”
When Trump launched his campaign to regain the White House, it was clear how his opponents intended to spend the “insurrection currency” they believed they gained.
In September 2023, a group of Colorado voters filed a lawsuit to keep Donald Trump off the state’s presidential ballot. The lawsuit claimed Trump was disqualified from holding public office again under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states that officials who have previously sworn an oath to uphold the US Constitution and then engage in an insurrection against the US government are barred from holding public office.
In November, the district court determined that Trump would remain on the primary ballot, but the following month, Colorado’s Supreme Court overruled the district court and found that Trump’s conduct on January 6 constituted an insurrection, disqualifying him from running for president.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruling formally declared January 6th an insurrection. The ruling also prompted Trump’s opponents in numerous other states to keep him off their state ballots for inciting an insurrection. Their “insurrection currency” ran out in March 2024, when the US Supreme Court struck down individual states’ bids to disqualify Trump from running for president. The US Supreme Court ruled that states cannot impose Section 3 of the 14th Amendment on federal officials.
Trump regained the presidency in November 2024.
As president-elect, Trump declared that he would not grant blanket pardons to the Jan. 6 defendants. He would grant pardons on a case-by-case basis. Trump’s Vice President, JD Vance, indicated that those responsible for the violence on January 6th will not be considered for pardons. However, on the first day of Trump’s second term, he pardoned and commuted the sentences of more than 1,200 people for their roles in the turmoil at the US Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.
Trump even granted clemency to individuals guilty of attacking police officers.
The Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed Trump for president, accused Trump of breaking his word and condemned the mass pardons. According to the FOP, President Trump sent a dangerous message that assaulting law enforcement has no serious consequences.
The FOP was right.
Regrettably, Trump reneged on his promise due to his inability to resist spending the “insurrection currency” he had acquired. When the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Jan. 6th was an official insurrection, it confirmed to Trump that all of the Jan. 6th defendants were “political prisoners” regardless of the crimes they committed at the Capitol.
False narratives begat false narratives.
Trump’s opponents spent their “insurrection currency” on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment in an unprecedented attempt to prevent Trump from running for president. Trump, on the other hand, spent his “insurrection currency” in accordance with a precedent established in 1868 by President Andrew Johnson, who pardoned all Confederate soldiers who participated in an insurrection against the US government.
Trump reasoned that if Johnson could pardon Confederate soldiers, he could pardon the January 6th “political prisoners” without any serious political repercussions. The difference between Johnson and Trump is that Johnson was restoring the Union, whereas Trump wanted to spend “insurrection currency” better than his opponents.
When Shapiro wrote in his opinion piece that a false insurrection narrative can gain currency and cause a dangerous injustice, he didn’t anticipate Trump dodging one injustice and perpetuating another.
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