Jan 6 insurrection: Militias, far-right extremists, those advocating violence now part of mainstream

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00:00Well, today is the day that Donald Trump's re-election into office will be validated,

00:04exactly four years after the riots that saw violence on Capitol Hill, as Trump supporters

00:09tried to stop the same ceremony when it was for Joe Biden.

00:13Trump has called that January 6th insurrection a day of love, and vows to pardon many of

00:20the rioters as soon as he takes office.

00:22Well, here is Joe Biden's reflection on that day on Capitol Hill.

00:28Four years ago, January 6th, this Capitol was attacked by a violent mob.

00:32If you come over to the Oval before I leave, I'll show you the room that the former president

00:37sat in for three and a half hours, watching what was going on on television, the small

00:41dining room off of my, off the Oval Office.

00:44And our democracy was really, literally put to the test.

00:48And thankfully, our democracy held.

00:50But the big reason is because of the bravery of the Capitol Police and the local people

00:55who stood with us.

00:56Never forget them.

00:57They're guarding you.

00:58Well, it has gone down in history as the day that shook American democracy, extreme violence,

01:09up to two and a half thousand people, including members of far-right groups such as the Proud

01:14Boys, forcing their way into the US Congress, trying to prevent the certification of Joe

01:19Biden's election.

01:20Well, Donald Trump at the time tweeted about a stolen election, while leading politicians

01:25had to be evacuated.

01:27Protesters smashed the windows, they rifled through papers.

01:29And the situation only really calmed down after Donald Trump tweeted to tell the protesters

01:33to go home.

01:34Well, four years later, what do Americans now make of that day?

01:38All reporters in Washington take a look.

01:44Daniel Hodges is one of the Washington police officers deployed to the Capitol on January

01:496th.

01:50You could hear over the radio that there were officers already at the Capitol getting overwhelmed

01:54by the violence that the people were causing.

01:58So they called for backup, and that was us.

02:03We ran to the vans that we had taken downtown, put on all our hard gear, the pads that you

02:07see in the video, and made our way over here to the West Terrace.

02:12He says the crowd was far from peaceful.

02:16The crowd was more sparse.

02:19Further out from the Capitol, they were content to just yell at us, call us traitors, oathbreakers,

02:24telling us to remember our oaths, stormtroopers, that kind of thing.

02:30As we got closer, though, the crowd became more dense, more aggressive.

02:34The police officer and his platoon tried in vain to keep the crowd out of the building.

02:39But faced with sheer numbers, they finally crumbled.

02:42There was no getting that territory back once we lost the line.

02:47So we retreated.

02:49We went up some stairs there and went inside the Capitol building and reorganized, or I

02:54reorganized there, put on my gas mask.

02:58And that's where you see the viral video that I've been in, just a pitched battle between

03:03a couple dozen police officers and just an endless number of the horde.

03:11The man behind the mask is Daniel Hodges, being brutally attacked.

03:19I was in there as long as I could until eventually I got pinned against a metal door frame.

03:24I was unable to defend myself there, and some attackers took advantage of my vulnerability.

03:30Someone was able to rip away my riot baton and beat me in the head with it.

03:35I was being crushed.

03:37I was exposed to all the tear gas and the O.C. spray or pepper spray.

03:44And at that point, the only thing I could do was call for help.

03:54These images moved Americans from all walks of life and helped establish January 6 as

03:59a violent episode in American history.

04:02According to the Department of Justice, 140 police officers were physically attacked during

04:07the assault on the Capitol.

04:08We didn't start anything.

04:10They came from all over the country here for violence.

04:15We just did our jobs to try and defend our elected officials, all of them, no matter

04:21what party they belonged to.

04:22We defended all of them.

04:24We can speak now to Professor of US and International Politics, Scott Lucas.

04:29Thanks so much for your time.

04:30We're looking back, of course, it's the 6th of January, four years to the day of those

04:35massive riots on Capitol Hill, and of course, the same day that we're seeing Donald Trump's

04:39re-election validated, four years on from the riots, seen as an attack on democracy.

04:45What do you think is left of that movement?

04:51In some senses, it's not, as it were, a movement like a political party.

04:56It's not like you can put your finger on it like the Democrats and the Republicans.

05:00For example, the conspiracy theorist of QAnon, which is pretty much a social media movement.

05:08They won't pop up today as part of the proceedings that take place.

05:14But in other ways, the militias, the far-right extremists, those who advocated violence are

05:22now part of the mainstream.

05:25There are members of Donald Trump's inner circle, both past and present, for example,

05:31who were linked to the QAnon movement or reinforced their slogans.

05:37They included the former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, and they include Trump's

05:41current nominee to be FBI Director, Kash Patel.

05:45There are legislators who are linked to QAnon.

05:49There are, of course, those who have been linked to the militia movement who are now

05:53part of the mainstream.

05:54And perhaps most important, there are prominent figures who put out the conspiracy theories

06:00that were part of that effort to overturn the 2020 election and for Trump to hold office

06:05in what was effectively an attempted coup.

06:08When I talk public figures who reinforce those conspiracy theories, they would include a

06:12person like Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world who owns the social media

06:17platform X.

06:19Indeed, an Elon Musk who won't be an official part of the administration, but there's no

06:24doubt into the amount of influence he has on Donald Trump.

06:29Well, not only does he have the influence over Donald Trump, not only is Elon Musk part

06:35of the attempt to almost crush the U.S. system, to put in political appointees, to make sure

06:41that the Justice Department does not carry out its independent job, but serves Trump

06:46by going after his political enemies, by putting in a Trumpist to head the FBI, by

06:51putting in Trumpist to head up the Pentagon, the State Department.

06:55Not only is Musk part of that, Musk is trying to reproduce that takeover of the U.S. system

07:00in other countries.

07:01As I speak to you right now, Elon Musk is engaged in a sustained effort to overthrow,

07:06and I use that term overthrow, to overthrow the governments in the U.K. and Germany.

07:11And at this point, there is no check on what Elon Musk will put out, which usually is false,

07:17occasionally true, in order to whip up animosity, hatred and division, so he can increase his

07:23power and influence over the U.S. and over other countries.

07:26Indeed, I mean, we've heard the warnings from outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz saying,

07:31you know, don't be swayed by big business, don't vote for big business, vote for politicians.

07:37How much do you think that social media X is still having an influence on voters today?

07:42Have we not seen the danger of it by now?

07:44I'll give you one statistic that takes us all the way back to the first Trump term and

07:50the start of the conspiracy theories that are now part of the mainstream.

07:55Approximately 30% of Republicans in poll after poll believe the conspiracy theory that was

08:01whipped up on social media, that the U.S. government was run by Satanist and pedophiles.

08:08Satanist and pedophiles.

08:11We're now eight, nine years after those initial conspiracy theories, and they've morphed and

08:16taken different shape on social media in order to target vile enemies who are supposedly

08:22threatening the U.K. and America or Germany or indeed France.

08:28Sometimes those conspiracy theories will target certain racial groups.

08:32Sometimes they'll target certain ethnic groups.

08:35Sometimes they'll target certain groups of a different religion.

08:39Now that has occurred in the past.

08:41You know, our countries all have checkered histories of whipping up conspiracy theories

08:46to serve those who want to seize power.

08:49But the fact is social media makes this happen much quicker and with a much wider scope.

08:54So where do you see things going in the year ahead?

08:58At the end of the day, and we'll talk about questions of what you can do about social

09:03media, whether it should be regulated, controlled.

09:05We'll talk about dealing with people like Elon Musk.

09:08We'll talk about the question of, you know, Donald Trump as he reveals his policies.

09:13But two things are important.

09:15The first is, is whether institutions can continue to function.

09:19Because a lot of these attacks, these conspiracy theories, these attacks on the enemies within

09:24and without are attempts to break down the institutions so that there's no longer checks

09:30and balances, so that a man like Donald Trump can rule like an autocrat.

09:34But secondly, while trying to preserve those institutions, again in France as well as the

09:39United States, it depends on us as individuals.

09:43Are we willing to cut through the disinformation, to cut through the conspiracy theory, to discuss

09:48decently and with respect with others, to establish what is happening?

09:53Are we able to establish what we should do, which does not include violence, which does

09:57not include division, which does not include insulting other groups?

10:02Are we willing to do that as individuals or do we put our hands up and say, they win?

10:08That's a future which is not only for the United States, but I'm afraid for elsewhere

10:12around the world this year and for years to come.

10:15OK, Scott Lucas, Professor of US and International Politics.

10:18Thanks indeed for joining us and bringing us your eye opener, your view of the situation

10:23when it comes to politics across the globe.

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