Democrats refuse to forget Jan. 6, 2021. Many Republicans don’t think there’s anything to remember.
House Democrats spent the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riots conducting an hours-long hearing to recount the violence that unfolded on Capitol Hill five years ago on Tuesday. House Republicans spent the day at the Kennedy Center attending a retreat to outline their 2026 legislative priorities and listened to a lengthy speech from President Donald Trump.
The daylight between the Democratic and Republican responses to Jan. 6 distills a central tension that has distanced the two parties over the past five years. Many Democratic lawmakers believe that Trump is an active, serious threat to democracy — so much so that many centered that message in their 2024 campaigns. But Republican lawmakers — who won their seats despite those Democratic attacks — believe that Trump is a champion of the party who deserves veneration.
“The years may have muffled the screams we heard, and the horrible images of that day may have faded, so as we mark this grim anniversary, it’s important that we remember exactly what happened,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, the former January 6 Select Committee Chair, said at the Democrats’ event.
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Most House Republicans, as former Trump impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin put it, commemorated the anniversary “by doing exactly nothing.”
While the hearing took place, much of the House Republican conference was listening to Trump’s 10 a.m. speech, where he held court for more than 80 minutes on a host of topics. He dissed House Republicans for requesting calls from him at 3 a.m., discussed Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro’s dancing, dubbed himself Boeing’s best “salesman,” imitated former President Joe Biden, and described former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as an “elegant fellow.”
At one point, he pantomimed weightlifting to make a point about transgender people participating in women’s sports — a gesture that Trump said first lady Melania Trump believes is “unpresidential.”
Republicans laughed with and cheered for Trump throughout the speech as he showered praise on their 2025 legislative achievements.
Only briefly did he mention Jan. 6, 2021, using it as an opportunity to bash the “fake news” and so-called “unselect committee” for allegedly failing to report that five years ago Trump instructed rioters to march to the Capitol “peacefully and patriotically.” He called the supposed omission a “scandal.” (Multiple news outlets reported that quote at the time.)
He also hammered former Speaker Nancy Pelosi for allegedly rejecting assistance from the National Guard to protect the Capitol. Multiple news outlets have debunked that claim, as Pelosi did not have authority over the National Guard.
In keeping with Trump’s messaging, the White House published a website outlining the administration’s timeline of Jan. 6 and championed the rioters as “patriots.”
As for Democrats, “They are vicious people,” Trump said.
Simultaneously, the Democrats in question — Pelosi, members of the Select Committee and other lawmakers — painted a vicious picture of Trump.
“President Trump summoned a mob to the Capitol which violently attacked police officers, caused deaths, threatened the functioning of our democracy, but it didn’t succeed,” former Rep. Elaine Luria, a former committee member now running to reclaim a seat in Congress, said at the hearing.
At the event, titled “Setting the Record Straight on the Capitol Insurrection,” Democrats looked backward to offer their memories of the day and their findings from the Select Committee’s report. But they also looked forward, demanding more official acknowledgement of that day.
Democrats expressed disgust with Trump’s blanket pardons of convicted Jan. 6 rioters. In the Senate, Sens. Alex Padilla and Sheldon Whitehouse introduced legislation to ban taxpayer payouts for Jan. 6 pardon recipients.
Others, including former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, raised that a bipartisan House coalition had approved a plaque recognizing the Capitol Police officers who defended Congress, and three years later, it still has not been put up.
“Had they not been there, it would have been a very different and very bad day,” Kinzinger said of police, adding, “That’s why I say double the size of it when you guys put it up.”
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