When Will We Make January 6 a Day of Commemoration?
We are not taking what happened in 2021 seriously enough.
The US Capitol seen through security fencing.
(Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)
Washington, DC, looked so beautiful this morning, blanketed in its first snow of 2025. It was almost as if the fates were trying to whitewash the January 6 of four years ago, that, bloody, abominable crime against democracy that smashed windows and doors, claimed five lives and injured more than 150 people. If any of the survivors took today’s beautiful snow as a positive omen, I appreciate that for them. But generally I don’t appreciate a whitewash.
I found myself thinking today about how on every September 11 for about 20 years, NBC News, and then MSNBC, played its own coverage of that day, for many hours, starting with when the punchy Today Show got first word of this unthinkable attack, and proceeding throughout the gory details. Please don’t think I’m conflating the tragedies. So many more people died on 9/11; so many buildings were destroyed, not just damaged. The only thing that provokes comparison is that September 11 was accomplished by foreign enemies of the U.S. We were attacked by our own people on January 6, 2021. And they were cheered on by their president. And there were some ugly scenes that should be preserved.
So couldn’t we have an hour showing when things got to be their most terrifying four years ago today? I’m not even sure when that would have been. For me it was when I found out my daughter was trapped in a House office building. But there were much more dramatic moments, bloodier moments, police battered, and poor Ashli Babbitt shot dead.
In a better country, we would have a national commemoration. In this country, we pretend it was all a misunderstanding.
Don’t get me wrong. The 2024 election results were clear. (As were 2020.) Not a mandate, not a landslide. But a win. So Vice President Kamala Harris did the right thing.
“The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy,” she declared. “As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny.”
And hey, I dug hearing her called “Madame President,” a formality, for every state’s Electoral College report.
We knew Kamala would be very mindful, very demure, and certify Trump’s victory. I felt it was my job to watch her stand up and do her job, while I guess Speaker Mike Johnson was entitled to sit down? Whatever. She knew what her job was, and she did it.
Always with grace, not always with joy. I did notice that when the Texas GOP jumped up and applauded rowdily, she did not smile. But she rarely smiled for her own votes, either, while Mike Johnson chuckled and clapped for the GOP wins. But she did cheer when Trump crossed the line.
But it hurt. You know, you always have the woman doing the work, not getting the credit. I know, men have done this before. But after she lost to this gargoyle, to see her being chipper and doing her job. It hurt. That’s all.
And soon we’ll be looking at the likelihood that 1,600 January 6 criminals, many violent, will be pardoned.
I was happy that the vice president was able to swear in Representative Lateefah Simon. She was one of Harris’s mentees. She will take our beloved Barbara Lee’s seat. We will go on.
Support The Nation’s June Fundraising Campaign
With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.
As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.
The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.
We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.
It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.
Onward,
Katrina vanden Huevel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation
More from The Nation
Graham Platner and the Rise of White-Male Identity Politics Graham Platner and the Rise of White-Male Identity Politics
Platner’s rocket to stardom reflects something ugly that’s developed, not only on the right but the left as well.
We Took CBS’s Money. We Won’t Trade It for Silence. We Took CBS’s Money. We Won’t Trade It for Silence.
Four Mike Wallace Scholarship recipients on the rebellion at CBS News and the future of an American institution.
Talan Collins, Santiago Campos, Sebastian Broche, and Chris Gloff
The House Voted to End the Iran War. Now the Real Battle Begins. The House Voted to End the Iran War. Now the Real Battle Begins.
Congress took an important symbolic step toward reasserting its authority over war powers. But much, much more needs to be done.
The District 12 Candidate Nobody Is Talking About The District 12 Candidate Nobody Is Talking About
“Our democracy is in deep trouble,” says Nina Schwalbe, “from vaccines to abortion to science, to SNAP, to rule of law.”
The Only Thing You Need to Know About the White House’s Aliens.gov Website The Only Thing You Need to Know About the White House’s Aliens.gov Website
It’s an attempt to rile up the MAGA base over reforms to the immigration system 60 years ago.
