Domestic reactions to the January 6 United States Capitol attack

Reactions

President Trump

During the riot

Donald Trump's statement during the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The video was originally posted on Twitter and shared on other social media before being removed from all platforms for violating various policies.

Trump, who had spent previous weeks promoting the "Save America" rally, was "initially pleased" when his supporters breached the Capitol and refused to intercede, but also "expressed disgust on aesthetic grounds" over the "low class" appearance of the supporters involved in the rioting. Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) said that senior White House officials told him that Trump was "delighted" to hear that rioters were entering the Capitol. Staffers reported that Trump had been "impossible to talk to throughout the day," and that his inability to deal with his election loss and displeasure that his supporters were unsuccessful in overturning the result by force had, according to one staffer, made Trump "out of his mind." Concerned that Trump may have committed treason through his actions, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone reportedly advised administration officials to avoid contact with Trump and ignore any illegal orders that could further incite the storming to limit their prosecutorial liability under the Sedition Act of 1918.

Shortly after 2:00 p.m. EST, as the riot was ongoing and after Senators had been evacuated from the Senate floor, Trump placed calls to Republican Senators (first Mike Lee of Utah, then Tommy Tuberville of Alabama), asking them to make more objections to the counting of the electoral votes to try to overturn the election. At 2:47 p.m., as his supporters violently clashed with police at the Capitol, Trump tweeted, "Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!" The Washington Post later reported that Trump did not want to include the words "stay peaceful".

Trump was in the West Wing of the White House at the time. A close adviser to Trump said the president wasn't taking many phone calls. When Trump watches television, the adviser explained, he will pause a recorded program to take a phone call, but "if it’s live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold.”

By 3:10 p.m., pressure was building on Trump to condemn supporters engaged in the riots; Trump's former communications director, Alyssa Farah, called upon him to "Condemn this now" and wrote "you are the only one they will listen to." By 3:25 p.m., Trump tweeted "I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue," but did not call upon the crowd to disperse. By 3:40 p.m., a number of congressional Republicans called upon Trump to more specifically condemn violence and to call on his supporters to end the occupation of the Capitol: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R–CA) said that he had spoken to Trump to ask him to "calm individuals down"; Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) issued a tweet telling Trump that "it is crucial you help restore order by sending resources to assist the police and ask those doing this to stand down"; and Representative Mike Gallagher (R–WI), in a video message, told Trump to "call it off". In contrast to Trump, who only called upon his supporters to "remain peaceful", Pence called for the occupation of the Capitol to end immediately.

Lindsey Graham later told the Washington Post that "it took [Trump] awhile to appreciate the gravity of the situation ... [he] saw these people as allies in his journey and sympathetic to the idea that the election was stolen".

By 3:50 p.m., White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the National Guard and "other federal protective services" had been deployed. At 4:06 p.m. on national television, President-elect Biden called for President Trump to end the riot. At 4:22 p.m., Trump issued a video message on social media that was later taken down by Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. In it, he praised his supporters and repeated his claims of electoral fraud, saying: "This was a fraudulent election, but we can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special. You've seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace."

At 6:25 p.m., Trump tweeted: "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long" and then issued a call: "Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!"

At 7:00 p.m., Rudy Giuliani placed a second call to Lee's number and left a voicemail intended for Tuberville urging him to make more objections to the electoral votes as part of a bid "to try to just slow it down". Giuliani said: "I know they're reconvening at 8 tonight, but it ... the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow – ideally until the end of tomorrow."

After the riot

Donald Trump made another statement many consider a concession after the riot on January 7, 2021.

Shortly after Congress certified Biden's victory, Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Director of Social Media, Dan Scavino, issued a statement from Trump saying, "Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!"

In a video statement released on January 7, Trump condemned the violence at the Capitol, saying that "a new administration will be inaugurated", which was widely seen as a concession, and that his "focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power" to the Biden administration. Vanity Fair reported that Trump was at least partially convinced to do so by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who told Trump that a sufficient number of Senate Republicans would support removing him from office unless he conceded. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had attempted to distance the administration from the rioters' behavior in a televised statement earlier in the day. On January 9, The New York Times reported that Trump had told White House aides that he regretted committing to an orderly transition of power and would never resign from office.

Trump's acknowledgment of his electoral defeat was met with opposition and hesitation from some of his supporters. Pro-Trump and far-right political commentators Nick Fuentes and Cassandra Fairbanks said Trump had "throw[n] his supporters under the bus" while QAnon conspiracy theorists performed a numerological reading of the time stamps in Trump's video statement and deemed there was a secret encoded message; Politico highlighted previously pro-Trump users of Parler calling Trump a "dildo".

Axios reported that Trump spoke with Kevin McCarthy on January 11, telling McCarthy "Antifa people" had stormed the Capitol; McCarthy told him "it's MAGA. I know. I was there". Trump also complained to McCarthy about election fraud, causing McCarthy to reply "[t]he election is over".

On January 12, in his first public appearance since the Capitol riot, Trump condemned the violence but denied he was responsible for inciting the mob stating that his remarks at the "Save America" rally were "totally appropriate".

First Lady Melania Trump

Five days after the riot, First Lady Melania Trump issued a statement that condemned the violence and also complained about unspecified criticism of her, saying "I find it shameful that surrounding these tragic events there has been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me — from people who are looking to, be relevant and have an agenda", recycling lines from her 2020 Republican National Convention speech. As the Capitol storming took place, she was reportedly conducting a photoshoot inside the White House for a self-proposed coffee table book on furniture and decorative items she acquired and restored during her husband's term.

Vice President Pence

A Trump–Pence sign on a city street corner smashed after the storming of the Capitol.

Pence tweeted at 3:35 p.m. on January 6, "This attack on our Capitol will not be tolerated and those involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law". He later spoke to the Senate when they reconvened on the night of January 6, saying, "Today was a dark day in the United States Capitol ... To those who wreaked havoc in our Capitol today, you did not win. Violence never wins. Freedom wins. And this is still the People's House."

According to sources close to the Vice President, Trump never reached out to Pence or inquired about his safety during the riot, even as protesters inside the Capitol were seeking him out and chanting "Where is Pence?" Aides believed that Pence was being set up as a scapegoat for Trump's failure to overturn the results of the election. Pence was described as very angry with Trump, and the two did not speak again until January 11.

Secretary of State Pompeo

On January 7, the State Department told diplomats to affirm Biden's victory. On January 8, Secretary Mike Pompeo met with incoming Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris

External videos
Comments by President-elect Joe Biden, January 6, 2021, C-SPAN

On January 6 at 4:06 p.m., President-elect Joe Biden addressed the nation from Wilmington, Delaware, calling the events an insurrection and borderline sedition, and said that "our democracy is under unprecedented assault". He called upon Trump to go on national television and demand an end to the protests. The following day Biden said the attack constituted domestic terrorism.

Minutes after Biden's initial condemnation of the riots, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris reiterated the President-elect's comments, writing that the protests were an "assault on the Capitol and our nation's public servants".

Congress

Main article: 2021 efforts to remove Donald Trump from office

Schumer's speech following the riot, during the reconvening of Congress later that evening

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the storming of the Capitol a "failed insurrection" and said "we are back at our posts, we will discharge our duty under the Constitution and for our nation. And we're going to do it tonight." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called upon Trump to "demand that all protesters leave the U.S. Capitol and Capitol Grounds immediately". Schumer, in his speech following the resuming of Senate business, labelled those participating in the storming of the Capitol as "domestic terrorists" whose actions will be a "stain on our country not so easily washed away". Pelosi later said, following her announcement that the electoral vote count would proceed during the evening of January 6 (Epiphany), "let us pray that this instigation to violence will provide an epiphany for our country to heal".

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, "What happened at the US Capitol yesterday was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president. This president should not hold office one day longer." He called on Mike Pence to invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that enables power to be transferred from the president to the vice-president if the president is deemed incapable of handling duties.

Representative Adam Kinzinger (R–IL) condemned the violence and described the events as a "coup attempt". He was the first republican to publicly request invocation of the 25th amendment, stating "the president is unfit, the president is unwell, the president must now relinquish control of the executive branch voluntarily, or involuntarily." Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), the Chair of the House Republican Conference (the third-ranking member of the House Republican leadership), said "No question the President formed the mob, the President incited the mob, the President addressed the mob. He lit the flame." Newly-sworn-in Representative Nancy Mace (R–SC), who had worked for the President's 2016 campaign, said that "everything that he's worked for ... all of that – his entire legacy – was wiped out" by the violence. Representative Mike Gallagher remarked of the riots that he had "not seen anything like this since I deployed to Iraq". Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R–WA), who had planned to oppose the certification of the electoral vote, announced that she would no longer object to the Electoral College results after witnessing the "disgraceful and un-American" events of January 6. She was joined by senators Kelly Loeffler, James Lankford, Steve Daines (R-MT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Mike Braun (R-IN), all of whom reversed course on the issue of contesting the electoral vote after witnessing the violence of the mob.

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) said, "What happened at the U.S. Capitol today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States" and part of "an unprecedented attack on our democracy". Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) said, "This violence was the inevitable and ugly outcome of the president's addiction to constantly stoking division." Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) took to the Senate floor to say, "We saw bloodshed because a demagogue chose to spread falsehoods and sow distrust of his own fellow Americans." Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) said, "The President bears responsibility for today's events by promoting the unfounded conspiracy theories that have led to this point." Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) condemned the protest and said, "Violence is always unacceptable. Even when passions run high. Anyone engaged in violence – especially against law enforcement – should be fully prosecuted."

Cruz himself, as well as Senator Josh Hawley, were subsequently urged to resign by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). Criticism was also leveled against both senators for sending out fundraising messages while the events in Washington were unfolding. First-year U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert (R–CO) – who, in another tweet, appeared to compare the events to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War – also faced calls for expulsion from Congress and criminal prosecution after Twitter posts from her Twitter sent as House Representative and congressional staff were sheltering from the rioters surfaced, in which she disclosed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been escorted from the House chamber.

Former presidents

All four living former presidents – Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter – denounced the storming of the Capitol, with Obama and Clinton condemning Trump for inciting the violence. Bush, who has infrequently commented on national matters since leaving office in 2009, released a statement saying "This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not our democratic republic," adding that he was "appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election and by the lack of respect shown today for our institutions, our traditions, and our law enforcement." Obama wrote that "History will rightly remember today's violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president ... as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation". He called the violence "unsurprising", arguing that the Republican Party had promoted a "fantasy narrative" regarding the 2020 election results that culminated in the violent outburst.

Other domestic reactions

Against rioters

Former attorney general William Barr, who had resigned days earlier, denounced the violence, calling it "outrageous and despicable", adding that the president's actions were a "betrayal of his office and supporters" and that "orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable." Trump's former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney urged the President to call a stop to the storming of the Capitol, and later resigned from his post as the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland. Jim Mattis, a former Marine general and Trump's first secretary of defense, and Tom Bossert, Trump's first homeland security adviser, condemned Trump for enabling the storming and destroying trust in the election. Terry Gainer, a former chief of the Capitol Police and former Senate sergeant-at arms, described the protests as unprecedented in law enforcement, declaring that "this is a much more hateful crowd incited by the president himself. It's definitely something new in our business."

Former Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley condemned the riot as "wrong and un-American" and, in a closed-door speech to Republican National Committee members the following day, criticized Trump's actions since Election Day. On his MSNBC program Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, called for the arrest of President Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Rudy Giuliani for their role in inciting the crowd to storm the Capitol through their election fraud rhetoric.

Michael Morell, former acting CIA director during the Obama administration, said, "We should be calling what happened [on January 6] domestic terrorism." Similarly, national security expert Bruce Hoffman also determined that the attack on the Capitol constituted "domestic terrorism". Former Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized Republicans for supporting Trump's behavior over the election results that led to his incitement of the riots for their own political calculations, saying: "I can no longer call myself a fellow Republican."

Former New Jersey governor and Trump supporter Chris Christie was "absolutely sickened" by the riots. The Austrian-born former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger compared the riot to Nazi Germany's Kristallnacht ("night of broken glass") of 1938, said that the riots had "shattered the ideals we took for granted" and "trampled the very principles on which our country was founded"; and criticized fellow Republicans' "spinelessness."

In a highly unusual move, within several days of the riot, a number of U.S. diplomats used the State Department's Dissent Channel to send two cables that condemned Trump's incitement of the Capitol assault; called upon Pence and the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to declare Trump unfit for office; and wrote that "[f]ailing to publicly hold the president to account would further damage our democracy and our ability to effectively accomplish our foreign policy goals abroad." One of the cables called upon the State Department to "explicitly denounce President Trump’s role in this violent attack on the U.S. government," and added that "Just as we routinely denounce foreign leaders who use violence and intimidation to interfere in peaceful democratic processes and override the will of their voters, the department's public statements about this episode should also mention President Trump by name. It is critical that we communicate to the world that in our system, no one — not even the president — is above the law or immune from public criticism."

In another unusual move, Gen. Mark Milley and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who usually steer clear of politics, issued a statement on January 12 reminding the military that Biden was about to become their Commander in Chief and that "the rights of freedom of speech and assembly do not give anyone the right to resort to violence, sedition and insurrection."

Football coach Bill Belichick, scheduled to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump on January 14, declined the award, citing the "tragic events" that had occurred.

Support for rioters

The New York Times reported that Trump supporters in Congress, the media, and in conservative politics "downplayed the violence as acts of desperation by people who felt lied to by the news media and ignored by their elected representatives". Others asserted the violence was actually caused by people associated with antifa. ABC News reported that conservative media outlets were clear that "the violence was indefensible", and that several conservative media outlets said that "liberal politicians and mainstream media outlets are more outraged when Trump supporters are violent than they were about civil rights demonstrations last summer", with Newsmax calling out the "hypocritical double standard on Trump vs. BLM protests".

Ivanka Trump, the president's eldest daughter, was criticized for addressing the rioters as "American patriots" in a now-deleted tweet publicly urging the cessation of violence.

Conservative media hosts – including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Greg Kelly, and Mark Levin – also sought to deflect responsibility from Trump supporters. Sinclair Broadcast Group provided a video segment to its owned and operated television stations in over 100 markets in which correspondent James Rosen reported "far-left infiltrators" had been involved, though he did not provide a source for the assertion. Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh compared the rioters to the Founding Fathers of the United States. Lou Dobbs criticized Capitol police for drawing guns "on American citizens, most of whom are patriots." Television host Pete Hegseth defended the rioters, saying "they just love freedom" and that "people feel like the entire system is rigged against them".

Members of the far-right group Proud Boys posted messages boasting and taking credit for causing "absolute terror". Walter West II, the sergeant-at-arms of the Republican Party of Texas, was removed from his post after expressing support for the rioters on Facebook.

On January 11, ABC News reported that the FBI was aware of plans for new armed protests at all 50 state capitols and the U.S. Capitol continuing through Inauguration Day on January 20.

False flag conspiracy theories

Some Trump loyalists claimed that the incident was a false flag operation staged by antifa to implicate Trump supporters. In an apparent effort to shift blame for any violence on antifa, leaders of the Proud Boys had requested in posts on Parler that members of the extremist group attend the rally incognito wearing "all black" clothing synonymous with anti-fascist activists. Facial recognition company XR Vision denied a report by Rowan Scarborough published in The Washington Times that its products had identified participants in the incursion as antifa activists, which was promoted by Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Representative Matt Gaetz (R–FL) and went viral among Trump supporters. The Washington Times removed the story from its website hours later and published a retraction. Similar baseless accusations of antifa false flag operations had circulated among Trump supporters since 2017. The FBI said there was no evidence of antifa involvement in the mob incursion.

Some far-right supporters of the event forcefully condemned those who said it is a false flag, hailing the storming as a great achievement for them and told them to own it.

Opinion polling

A YouGov poll of 1,397 U.S. registered voters found that overall, 71% opposed the storming of the Capitol (while 21% supported it), and 62% believed that the storming should be considered a threat to democracy. Among Republicans, 45% of Republicans supported the storming, with 43% opposed. In contrast, 96% of Democrats and 67% of independents were opposed. Fifty-two percent of Republicans blamed Joe Biden for the incident.

An Ipsos poll of 1,005 U.S. adults conducted between January 7–8, 2021, found that 70% of Americans disapproved of Trump's actions leading up to the assault on the Capitol, and 57% of Americans wanted Trump to be immediately removed for his role in the riots. 70% of respondents – including two-thirds of Republicans and Trump voters surveyed – described the participants as "criminals" or "fools"; 9% saw them as "concerned citizens"; and 5% saw them as "patriots." Among 339 Trump voters surveyed, 70% opposed the storming by the rioting supporters, while 12% of all respondents supported their actions.

A PBS NewsHour/Marist poll of 875 U.S. adults conducted on January 7, 2021, found that 18% of Republicans supported the riots. Generally, 88% of all respondents opposed or strongly opposed the rioters' actions, and 90% believed the perpetrators of the riot should face prosecution (with 17% of Republicans disagreeing); 63% of respondents felt Trump held "a great deal or good amount of blame" for the attack, while 69% of surveyed Republicans believed Trump bore "little or no fault." Support for Trump's removal from office was split, with 48% supporting it and 49% (including 51% of independent voters) opposed.

Media coverage and criticism

Coverage of the storming of the Capitol – which preempted regular daytime and prime time programming scheduled for January 6 on ABC, NBC and CBS – gave CNN its most-watched day in its 40-year history, with its daytime coverage netting an average of 8.97 million viewers (vs. 5.74 million for Fox News, 5.59 million for MSNBC, 4.85 million for ABC and 3.7 million for CBS) and its prime time coverage topping out at 8.20 million viewers (vs. 7.38 million for MSNBC, 5.77 million for NBC, 4.88 million for ABC, 4.58 million for Fox News and 2.57 million for CBS).

CNN Business opinion writer Oliver Darcy argued that multichannel television providers should be held to equal accountability as social media companies for promoting disinformation by carrying conservative news/opinion channels like Fox News, Newsmax TV and One America News Network (OAN). On the January 8 edition of his eponymous Fox News program, Tucker Carlson falsely claimed CNN was "working to force the Fox News Channel off the air and run [the network] out of business," and had lobbied five providers referenced in the article^ to drop it.

On January 6, radio broadcasting conglomerate Cumulus Media, whose roster of conservative talk pundits includes Dan Bongino, Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro, directed its on-air personalities to stop spreading false information about the 2020 election being "stolen" or face termination.

International reaction

Main article: International reactions to the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol

Over 70 other countries and international organizations expressed their concerns over the protests and condemned the violence, with some specifically condemning Trump's own role in inciting the attack. Multiple world leaders have made a call for peace, describing the riots as "an attack on democracy". The leaders of Brazil, Poland, Hungary, and Russia declined to condemn the situation, and described it as an internal U.S. affair.

Many media outlets worldwide described the storming as "anarchy", including British newspaper i and Canadian newspaper Ottawa Sun.

Several NATO intelligence agencies outside the United States also briefed their governments that it was an attempted coup by President Trump which may have had help from federal law-enforcement officials.

Military

On January 12, General Mark Milley, the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff, and all of the heads of each military branch, issued a statement condemning the storming of the Capitol and reminding all service members of their obligation to support and defend the Constitution and reject extremism. They said, "As we have done throughout our history, the U.S. military will obey lawful orders from civilian leadership, support civilian authorities to protect lives and property, ensure public safety in accordance with the law, and remain fully committed to protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."