Friend,
Today marks two years since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S.
Capitol
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, led by far-right insurrectionists.
The second anniversary of the deadly attack is an appropriate time to
take stock of what we have learned, what progress we have made, and
what we must do to protect against current and future threats to our
democracy and our democratic institutions.
The bipartisan House select committee investigating the
insurrection
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, which issued its final report late last year, provided us with a
road map for this important national reckoning.
Over the 18 months of its tenure, the committee conducted 10 public
hearings, interviewed over 1,000 witnesses, and reviewed more than 1
million pages of background information. This was the most important
congressional investigation since the 9/11 Commission.
Beyond the essential historical record, the true measure of the
committee's work will be whether the planners, perpetrators,
funders and those who inspired the insurrection - including
former President Donald Trump, his allies and other politicians who
sought to forcibly uphold white supremacy and overturn the 2020
election - are held accountable, with serious consequences.
The committee's report
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and accompanying materials have provided a blueprint toward
these objectives for Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Southern Poverty Law Center commends the members of the committee,
led by Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, for its
groundbreaking contribution to efforts to expose and stop extremists
from moving further into the mainstream. The committee's
investigation, final report and accompanying criminal referrals are
essential steps toward transparency and accountability.
What we have learned
The violence on Jan. 6 was planned and was never meant to be the end
goal. The committee report documented in great detail how Trump called
for his supporters to come to Washington on that fateful day and then
knowingly inspired an armed mob of his followers to go to the Capitol
to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
As we have previously documented
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, far-right antigovernment extremists - and Trump himself
- had laid the foundation for the violent insurrection in the
years before. The lies of a stolen election and the extremist
ideologies and conspiracy theories that fueled the attack were the
culmination of a months-long, coordinated strategy by Trump and his
allies to overturn the 2020 election and steal the presidency.
The committee report also documented that Trump and his allies used
racism as a principal driver in immediate post-election efforts to
disenfranchise voters in major urban areas in Michigan, Georgia,
Pennsylvania and other states. Over the next months, the false
allegation of a stolen election led many state legislatures with
Republican majorities (including in Deep South states where the SPLC
operates) to enact discriminatory anti-voter laws and create new,
racially gerrymandered congressional districts. These new districts
disproportionately disenfranchise voters of color and are designed to
undermine elections and control election outcomes in 2024 and beyond.
We have also learned that white supremacy and hard-right extremism
have been normalized and mainstreamed to a dangerous degree. White
supremacist groups played a lead role in organizing, coordinating and
executing the deadly Capitol attack and in other efforts to overturn
the results of the 2020 election. SPLC Intelligence Project experts
submitted testimony to the committee on how extremist groups and
individuals - like the Oath Keepers
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, the Proud Boys
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and white nationalist Nick Fuentes
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- have infused once-marginalized, white supremacist ideas
into mainstream Republican discourse and politics with the goal of
maintaining a grip on power and silencing communities of color.
The threat of political violence substantially increased
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in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack. According to a June
2022 poll jointly conducted by the SPLC and Tulchin Research
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, the mainstreaming of hate and antigovernment thought, and the
willingness to engage in political violence, are now widely accepted
on the right. For example, the poll found that 41% of Republicans
agreed with the statement that "some violence might be necessary
to protect the country from radical extremists." Over half of
Republicans also said they believed the country is headed toward a
civil war.
Progress made
The committee report did not adequately address the failure of law
enforcement and domestic intelligence agencies to recognize the scope
of extremist threat from hate and antigovernment groups and prepare
for the violence at the Capitol. But after the violence of Jan. 6,
both federal law enforcement officials and the Department of Defense
have substantially expanded their attention on domestic extremism and
sharpened their focus on this threat.
On his first full day in office, President Joe Biden ordered a
comprehensive review of government efforts to address domestic
terrorism. In June, the White House issued the first National
Strategy for Confronting Domestic Terrorism
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, which stated that "the two most lethal elements of
today's domestic terrorism threat are (1) racially or ethnically
motivated violent extremists who advocate for the superiority of the
white race and (2) anti-government or anti-authority violent
extremists, such as militia violent extremists."
Since that time, in periodic reports
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and congressional testimony, the Department of Justice
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, the FBI
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and the Department of Homeland Security
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have consistently reiterated that assessment and have provided
resources to address that threat.
The FBI and the Justice Department, working in coordination with state
and local law enforcement officials, have pursued attack planners and
perpetrators with considerable urgency: Almost 1,000 people have been
charged with crimes linked to the Jan. 6 insurrection; more than 460
people have pleaded guilty to charges connected to the riotous
attacks.
At the Pentagon, shocked by the fact that more than 90 current or
former service members faced criminal charges for participating in the
Capitol attack, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a
memorandum in February 2021, ordering a department-wide stand-down
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to educate Department of Defense personnel on the threat posed
by supremacist and extremist activity. In March, the
SPLC presented testimony
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at hearings on the issue before the House Armed Services
Committee.
READ MORE
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
DONATE
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