WAPO News (Not an OP ED): "Trump inspired the Jan 6 attack on the capitol."

[lindysalsagal]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/06/january-6-attack-capitol-guide-what-we-now-know/

Fact Checker Analysis:

Trump aides and supporters actively sought to overturn the election

The Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol: A guide to what we now know By Glenn Kessler, The Fact Checker Today at 3:00 a.m. EST

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=540

The reality, backed by law enforcement officials and the judiciary, is that Jan. 6 was the culmination of a sustained effort by a sitting president to overturn the election results. “That attack, that siege was criminal behavior, plain and simple,” said FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, who was appointed by Trump. “And it’s behavior that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism.”


Zignal Labs, a media insights company, later reported that more than 90,000 mentions of “Storm the Capitol” appeared on social media platforms in the 30 days before the attack. (“The Storm” is an expression that many self-identified Trump and QAnon supporters have used to refer to the day when Trump would unmask an alleged pedophile cabal run by Democrats.)

Contrary to speculation in right-wing social media, no evidence has emerged that the violence was spurred on by left-wing antifa supporters or law enforcement officers in a “false-flag” operation. (The New York Times revealed one FBI informant was a member of the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence, who entered the Capitol.) A Washington Post review of court filings and public records last year found that the vast majority of those charged federally were not known to be part of far-right groups or premeditated conspiracies to attack the Capitol.

Reporting in The Post and elsewhere has revealed that during the 187 minutes of the attack, Trump avidly watched it unfold on television but took few steps to calm the situation. His first tweet, about 10 minutes after Pence had been removed by his Secret Service detail to protect him from the mob, reiterated the lie that the election was stolen: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth.”