There are three occasions in our country’s brief history whose anniversaries should be observed with due solemnity: three occasions when our nation came under attack from enemies foreign and domestic.
First, Dec. 7, 1941. When the Japanese Air Force staged a sneak attack on America’s naval base at Pearl Harbor, killing 2,403 Americans, sinking four American battleships and severely damaging another four — and catapulting America into World War II.
Second, Sept. 11, 2001. When 19 terrorists hijacked four American jetliners and flew them into the two World Trade Center Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pa. — killing a total of 2,997 passengers, crew members and workers in office buildings.
Third, Jan. 6, 2021. When an armed mob attacked the United States Capitol, broke through Capitol Police barricades, broke doors and windows, occupied the House and Senate chambers and sent senators and representatives and the vice president of the United States running for their lives. Five police officers who served at the Capitol on Jan. 6 died in the days and weeks following the attack — and, according to the Justice Department, 140 officers guarding the Capitol were injured.
Matthew Graves, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, called it “likely the largest single-day mass assault of law enforcement officers in our nation’s history.”
All three are monumental events. And all three events should be remembered in the same spirit. With grief over the lives lost; with outrage over a direct attack on America; and with determination to track down and hold responsible those enemies who attacked our sovereignty. The problem is that while most Americans recognize the anniversaries of Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11 with appropriate solemnity, Donald Trump and his MAGA followers still refuse to acknowledge the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6 as anything serious. Indeed, some of them go out of their way to deny it even happened.
Attempts by some Republicans to downplay the significance of Jan. 6 are mind-boggling. It started with Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), who famously compared the mob’s breaching of the Capitol to a “normal tourist visit.” For the record, in the last three years, 1,146 of those “tourists” have been charged with a crime and 378 are serving time in prison.
Yet denials continue. Without any evidence, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and others contend that the entire riot was instigated by the FBI as a “false flag” operation — a nonsensical theory strongly refuted last week by former Vice President Mike Pence. Meanwhile, some of those arrested insist that police officers actually “invited” them to invade the Capitol: a claim refuted by video of police officers being attacked and beaten by rioters.
And rather than condemn those who attacked the Capitol, Donald Trump promises to pardon many of them if reelected. On last week’s third anniversary of Jan. 6, he even called them “hostages” — a brazen attempt to identify those who attacked our Capitol on Jan. 6 with those Israelis and Americans seized, beaten and raped by Hamas forces on Oct. 7.
Of course, it’s no secret why so many Republicans engage in such wild conspiracy theories about Jan. 6. It’s the only way they can justify their slavish devotion to Donald Trump. They can’t defend what he did on Jan. 6, so they just try to pretend it was no big deal — which represents a great danger to the republic.
We either give Jan. 6 the same weight as Dec. 7 and Sept. 11, and hold accountable all those from the top down who were responsible, or the same thing’s bound to happen again. Only worse.
Press hosts “The Bill Press Pod.” He is the author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.”