Although the assault on the Capitol and attempt to overturn the election occurred three years ago, it is still at the forefront of political discussions. Donald Trump refuses to concede and repeats his claim the election was rigged. His supporters believe him with so much devotion they attempted to keep him in power through violence on January 6, 2021.
A CNN poll conducted last summer found that nearly 70% of Republicans believe Biden’s win was not legitimate. In other words, the Big Lie that led to the 2021 insurrection is now the dominant thinking among Republicans (cnn.com/2024/01/05/media/ January-6-insurrection-three-yearslater).
Notice that article said, Republicans “believe…” There is a vast difference between knowing or just “believing” something. Biden won both the popular number and the electoral votes by overwhelming numbers. Every court decision affirmed it.
Here are the facts. Will people accept them? That is the crucial question. The final, official results of the 2020 Presidential election show Biden received 81,268,924 popular votes. Donald Trump received 74,216,154 popular votes. Joe Biden received 306 electoral votes and Donald Trump received 232 electoral votes (fec.gov/resources/cms-content/ documents/2020presgeresults.pdf).
It is tempting to rationalize and refuse to accept unwelcome facts and evidence. In my view, this is why so many will not admit that Donald Trump lost.
My grandmother would say, with her country wisdom, “If wishes were fishes the sea would be full.”
Lauren Hodges was a reporter at the January 6, 2021, rally and witnessed the attack on the Capitol. She returned later with another reporter, Tom Bowman, for the “Justice for J6” rally in September 2021.
A man named Phil from Kentucky told them, “Those weren’t Trump supporters.” He claimed the only people breaking in were dressed all in black (Lauren Hodges, January 2, 2022, npr.org/January-6-insurrection- capitol-attack-trump-anniversary).
A nurse from South Carolina named Jane continued, “So they wore black helmets, black clothes, black backpacks who started busting the windows first. She said she saw members of Antifa and Black Lives Matter committing the violence. She also claimed the Trump supporters were actually trying to fight them off” (npr.org).
Hodges said, “But when we mentioned we were on site that day, she admitted that she never actually came close enough to the Capitol to see any violence. We let her know that the Proud Boys were dressed in all black that day, having planned to forego their usual colors of black and yellow in order to be ‘incognito.’” Jane said, “I didn’t know that” (npr. org).
It would be interesting to know what Jane still thinks after she was found to be dishonest and confronted with irrefutable evidence.
Hodges continued her story. “But the thread attempting to blame Antifa and Black Lives Matter was repeated by former President Trump as recently as two weeks ago (before Hodges’ article). In an interview with Candace Owens (a conservative political commentator) on December 21, she [Owens] said it was FBI informants instigating the crowd.”
Hodges said, ”But we know who was there” (npr.org).
I urge deniers to log in to cnn.com/2021/12/24/politics/ January-6-video-capitol-hillriot- index.html. Many other sites on the internet will let anyone see the actual events and hear the profanity-laced threats of rioters as they assaulted police officers.
A source for photographs of the attack on the Capitol is this: reuters.com/pictures-defining- images-jan-6th-capitolattack-
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After the first company Trump hired to find election fraud found none, a second one was obtained. Ken Block, founder of Simpatico Software System, found none either. Here is his final statement. “There were just crazy claims of fraud coming in from the most unlikely places, and some from very likely places that I was asked to evaluate carefully and was able to document every one of them was false. There was no fraud” (Luke Barr, April 28, 2023, abcnews. go.com/politics/2nd-firmhired- trump-campaign-voterfraud- claims).
Now for the reality check. Will those who are still denying facts about January 6, 2021, accept absolute, indisputable evidence?
In my view, it appears that many good, sincere people let their wishes influence them so much they deny what their eyes can see.
No matter how many times the votes were counted and recounted, validated, and every court affirmed it, Biden won. Trump lost. As difficult as it may be, it seems reasonable to accept that truth.