Perhaps the single most disorienting aspect of the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the Capitol has been the lack of a decisive message from America’s leaders that the perpetrators will be brought to justice. A prime reason for this is that this message would normally come from the president; in this case, as Donald Trump helped incite the attack, we are left in the harrowing situation in which the president is neither willing nor able to rally the nation to its own defense. Compare this to the nearest analogue, the terrorist attacks September 11, when President Bush very quickly announced to the American public and the world that the United States would be moving quickly against those responsible.
Instead, we are witness to a spectacle of fortification, of both Washington, D.C. and the various state capitols, that communicates both grave danger and a fundamental passivity in its face. We are effectively being told that we Americans need to be afraid, when the message very much should be that it is the violent insurrectionists who should be afraid. It is as if war had been declared on the United States by a hostile country, but the United States declined to declare war in turn.
Still, there has not been complete silence from our leaders. Many Democrats have spoken passionately about the need for justice, and to investigate exactly what happened on January and in its lead-up. The House impeached the president for his role in the attacks. And the FBI director has warned the insurrectionists that the FBI is coming for them.
But given the gravity of this event, we need President Biden, as soon as he’s sworn in, to not only make it clear that the full force of American justice will be brought against the insurrectionists, but that the government will act to disrupt and dissolve any white nationalist, neo-Nazi, or QAnon organizations who were involved in its planning, or who are plotting future attacks. Though the death toll was a tiny fraction of 9/11, this assault was just as, if not more, serious and consequential. The idea that there are thousands or even millions of Americans who have been emboldened or radicalized under Trump to take up arms against their own government is no less a danger to the United States than a handful of terrorists in 2001 who got lucky with lax U.S. airline security and a president who ignored the multiple warnings of an imminent attack. Biden has a responsibility to explain this reality to the American people.
Decisive action by Biden is also called for because of how this attack was given aid and comfort by the lies of election theft spread not only by Donald Trump, but affirmed by many in the Republican Party — including the 100+ representatives and 7 senators who voted to reject the results of the November election. Because of this willingness of the GOP to risk incitement of violence, the stakes are even higher — Biden must make it clear that there will never be a scenario in which violence can successfully overthrow the American government.
It is not enough to leave this fight to the workings of the criminal justice system; the assault on the Capitol was a political attack as much as a violent, criminal one, and requires a political response from the president.