Friend,
Five years ago today, we all watched in horror as Donald Trump and his supporters attempted to forcefully overturn a lawful election by storming the U.S. Capitol. The attack was not confusion or chaos. It was the predictable result of months of lies, pressure campaigns, and deliberate efforts to convince people that elections only matter if one side wins.
January 6 was a test of our institutions and a test of our values. Members of Congress fled for their lives. Capitol Police were violently assaulted. The peaceful transfer of power was interrupted. The Constitution was treated as optional. The message was clear: power was placed above law.
Five years later, Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are not accepting responsibility for what happened. They are trying to erase it.
Just today, the Trump administration launched a White House website that promotes false and conspiratorial accusations about January 6. The site portrays the attackers as peaceful, downplays the violence against Capitol Police, and falsely accuses Democrats of having caused the events of that day by doing their jobs and certifying the 2020 election. They also falsely and ironically claim that Democrats used federal agencies to punish dissent, and exploited security failures to create chaos for political gain. These claims are untrue and directly contradict court rulings, sworn testimony, and the extensive public record.
This is not disagreement about history. It is government backed propaganda. It is an attempt to reverse victim and perpetrator, to turn accountability into persecution, and to train the public to distrust elections, law enforcement, and democratic governance itself.
That is why January 6 still matters now. Donald Trump is president again. Republicans hold power again. And the same movement that tried to overturn an election is now working to control what the remembered truth of that attack will be. Whether democracy endures depends on whether lies are allowed to harden into official narrative.
At People For the American Way, we take this threat seriously. We track extremism. We expose abuses of power. We defend the courts and democratic norms when Republicans try to bend or break them. This work is sustained and essential.
That is why I am asking you to become a monthly supporter by joining our “Defenders of Democracy” monthly giving program. Monthly giving gives us the stability to confront a long-term campaign against truth and accountability. In a second Trump presidency, consistency is not optional. It is protection.
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Five years after January 6, the warning could not be clearer. Democracy does not survive on its own. It survives only if people are willing to defend truth, accountability, and the rule of law even when those in power try to erase them.
With resolve,
Zach VanHouten
Director of Digital Membership
People For the American Way
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