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      Many are disillusioned with American democracy. Can Joe Biden win them over? | Francine Prose

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      Many are disillusioned with American democracy. Can Joe Biden win them over?Francine ProseIt’s not enough to excoriate Trump and his supporters. We must seek out and eradicate the roots of the alienation and resentment that so deeply divide us There’s something exhilarating about hearing someone tell the truth, especially now when so many people seem to believe that the difference between facts and falsehood is a matter of political affiliation or personal opinion. Watching Kamala Harris and Joe Biden speak in the Capitol Rotunda on the anniversary of the 6 January insurrection, hearing the president blame the brutal riot directly on Donald Trump and his supporters – it felt almost like exhaling, after holding your breath for too long. Yes, it’s a lie that the 2020 election was stolen. Yes, it’s a lie that the rioters swarming the Capitol building were genuine American patriots. Those are facts that can’t be stressed enough, that need to be said and repeated by the powerful and the widely respected.Historians mark 6 January with urgent warning on threats to US democracyRead moreOver the past few days, I’ve watched deeply moving interviews with the Capitol police officers who lived through the riot. Especially affecting was the PBS conversation with Sandra Garza, whose partner, Brian Sicknick, defended the Capitol against attackers and died the next day of a stroke; in Garza’s view, Donald Trump “needs to be in prison”. When I register my own jarringly adrenalized response to even the briefest film clip of the surging crowd calling out for blood, I know that I cannot begin to imagine what those who survived it – and their loved ones – continue to suffer.So it came as a relief to hear Biden emphasize the gravity and the dangers of political violence, as well as the urgent necessity of defending and upholding the constitution. It seemed vitally important to hear him say that January 6 needs to be remembered; that forgetting the past and moving on (as many Republican senators urge us to do) could conceivably pave the way for a second – and perhaps more catastrophic – assault on our government.Yet – like many listeners, I imagine – I couldn’t help wondering how many people were being convinced, how many minds were being changed by the reasonableness, the maturity and clarity of the president’s address. It’s not just that, as we keep hearing, Americans now inhabit two entirely alternate realities: one in which the Covid vaccine staves off disease, another in which inoculation causes infertility and ALS. Among the obstacles that stand in the way of changing hearts and minds is that our problems, as a nation, are older, deeper and more severe than Donald Trump’s megalomania.So even as it was satisfying to hear Biden hold Trump directly accountable for ramping up his base’s bloodlust, for watching the mayhem on TV and making no attempt to stop it, I kept recalling something I remember people saying in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election: that the malevolent genie that Trump had unleashed from the bottle was unlikely to go back in. Five years later than seems truer than ever: My sense is that Trump could completely retire from public life tomorrow and the support for him and his ideas would remain undiminished. A half-dozen Capitol rioters were elected to office in November, and two dozen more plan to run in upcoming elections.What I wished that Biden had acknowledged was the fact that the raging, disruptive genie had inhabited the bottle long before “the defeated former president” ever popped the cork. I wished Biden had followed up his gratifying excoriation of Trump and his supporters with a commitment to seeking out and eradicating the roots of the alienation, resentment and fury that so deeply divide our country.Why – aside from the lying claims of a stolen election – had the rioters armed and armored themselves and traveled all the way to Washington? It struck me that many of Trump’s supporters may not be entirely anti-democratic so much as acutely (or unconsciously) aware of our democracy’s imperfections: its oligarchic edge. Biden may have reminded us that each of our votes matters equally. But the one thing I may possibly share in common with the thugs who invaded the Capitol is the pained awareness that my voice is not nearly as audible in Washington as the voices of the chief executives of Pfizer, Delta and Target.I thought of how, during the Great Depression, Eleanor Roosevelt toured the country, asking beleaguered Americans about their hardships and needs. How little of that seems to be happening now, when the consensus appears to be that our wounds can be healed remotely, by cajoling recalcitrant lawmakers into passing legislation with potential benefits that have so far eluded many Americans’ understanding.Of all the horrific things that occurred on 6 January, among the most disturbing to me was Trump’s parting speech to the rioters when at long last he advised them to go home. “You’re very special,” he said. “We love you.”Like any cult of personality, Trump’s impassioned support more closely resembles an (admittedly one-sided) affair of the heart than a reasoned political choice. And, in my experience, few lovers have fallen out of love after being informed that the beloved is an egomaniac and a liar.Of course the best known cure for love is to find someone else, but what’s more useful, in the long run, is to understand why one became embroiled in a deceptive and unbalanced relationship, and to find a way of designing and inhabiting a brighter future. What I wished I’d heard in Biden’s speech was a persuasive vision of the more fulfilled and less tormented life that, we can only hope, awaits us in the event that the poisonous romance with violence and hatred sputters out – and is finally over.
      Francine Prose is a novelist. Her latest book, The Vixen, was published in June
      TopicsUS Capitol attackOpinionUS politicsJoe BidenBiden administrationDonald TrumpTrump administrationcommentReuse this content More

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      US Capitol attack: is the government’s expanded online surveillance effective?

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      US Capitol attack: is the government’s expanded online surveillance effective?The Brennan Center for Justice explains how the US government monitors social media – and how ‘counter-terrorism’ efforts can threaten civil rights and privacy In the year since the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol, federal authorities have faced intense scrutiny for failing to detect warning signs on social media.After the 6 January insurrection, the US agency tasked with combatting terrorism and extremism, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has expanded its monitoring of online activity, with officials touting a new domestic terrorism intelligence branch focused on tracking online threats and sharing information about possible attacks. A senior DHS official told the Guardian this week the department aims to track “narratives known to provoke violence” and platforms that have been linked to threats. The primary goal, the official said, was to warn potential targets when they should enhance security.In the days leading up to the anniversary of the riot, for example, the agency saw an uptick in activity on platforms tied to white supremacists and neo-Nazis and warned law enforcement partners when appropriate, the official said. This monitoring relies on DHS analysts, not artificial intelligence, and doesn’t target “ideologies”, the official added, but rather “calls for violence”.The Guardian spoke with Harsha Panduranga, counsel with the liberty and national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a not-for-profit organization that has tracked police and government entities’ online surveillance programs, about the US government’s monitoring of social media in the wake of 6 January.Although DHS says its online efforts are consistent with privacy protections, civil rights and civil liberties, the expansion of social media monitoring still raised concerns, Panduranga argued. Without proper safeguards, a new report from the center warns, the expanded social media surveillance could be both ineffective at preventing attacks and harmful to marginalized groups that end up targeted and criminalized by “counter-terrorism” efforts.The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Which US government agencies monitor online activity?Many federal agencies monitor social media, including DHS, the FBI, the state department, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the US Postal Service, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US Marshals Service and the Social Security Administration (SSA). Our work has primarily focused on DHS, FBI and the state department, which make extensive use of social media for monitoring, targeting and information collection.Revealed: LAPD used ‘strategic communications’ firm to track ‘defund the police’ onlineRead moreWhy do these agencies monitor civilians’ social media?The FBI and DHS use social media monitoring to assist with investigations and to detect potential threats. Some of those investigations do not require a showing of criminal activity. For example, FBI agents can open an “assessment” [the lowest-level investigative stage] simply on the basis of preventing crime or terrorism, and without a factual basis. During assessments, FBI agents can search publicly available online information.Subsequent investigative stages, which require some factual basis, open the door for more invasive surveillance, such as the recording of private online communications. The FBI also awarded a contract to a firm in December 2020 to scour social media and proactively identify “national security and public safety-related events” not yet reported to law enforcement.DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division says it relies on social media when investigating matters ranging from civil immigration violations to terrorism. Government entities also monitor social media for “situational awareness” to coordinate a response to breaking events.How broad is this surveillance?Some DHS divisions, including Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the National Operations Center (NOC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), keep tabs on a broad list of websites and keywords being discussed on social media platforms. The agencies’ “privacy impact assessments” suggest there are few limits on the content that can be reviewed. Some assessments list a sweeping range of keywords that are monitored, including “attack”, “public health”, “power outage”, and “jihad”. Immigration authorities also use social media to screen travelers and immigrants coming into the US and even to monitor them while they live here. People applying for a range of immigration benefits also undergo social media checks to verify information in their application and determine whether they pose a security risk. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents can also look at publicly available social media content for a range of investigations, including probing “potential criminal activity” and are authorized to operate undercover online and monitor private communications.How has this surveillance expanded in the wake of the insurrection?The main new DHS effort we’re aware of is an initiative monitoring social media to try to identify “narratives” giving rise to violence. DHS says they’ll use social media to pinpoint tips, leads and trends. In September, for example, DHS warned there could be another attack on the Capitol in connection with a Justice for J6 rally. But reports showed that law enforcement personnel [and journalists] outnumbered the protesters, and there was no indication of violence at the protest. This shows how difficult it is to predict violence relying on social media chatter.How concerned are you about the potential for civil rights violations in the wake of 6 January?January 6 seems to be accelerating this emphasis on social media monitoring without sufficient safeguards. And the monitoring to identify “narratives” that may lead to violence is broad enough to sweep in constitutionally protected speech and political discussion on various issues. We’ve long seen that government monitoring of social media harms people in a number of ways, including wrongly implicating an individual or group in criminal behavior based on their online activity; misinterpreting the meaning of social media activity, sometimes with severe consequences; suppressing people’s willingness to talk or connect openly online; and invading individuals’ privacy. Authorities have characterized ordinary activity, like wearing a particular sneaker brand or making common hand signs, or social media connections, as evidence of criminal or threatening behavior. This kind of assumption can have high-stakes consequences.Can you share some specific examples that illustrate these consequences?In 2020, DHS and the FBI disseminated reports to law enforcement in Maine warning of potential violence at anti-police brutality demonstrations based on fake social media posts by rightwing provocateurs. Police in Kansas arrested a teenager in 2020 on suspicion of inciting a riot reportedly based on a mistaken interpretation of his Snapchat post, in which he was actually denouncing violence. In 2019, DHS officials barred a Palestinian student arriving to study at Harvard from entering the country allegedly based on the content of his friends’ social media posts. The student said he had neither written nor engaged with the posts, which were critical of the US government. In another case of guilt by association, the NYPD was accused of wrongly arresting a 19-year-old for attempted murder in 2012 in part because prosecutors argued his “likes” and photos on social media proved he was a member of a violent gang. That same year, British travelers were interrogated at Los Angeles international airport and sent back to the UK reportedly due to a border agent’s misinterpretation of a joking tweet.Is social media surveillance effective at identifying legitimate threats?Broad social media monitoring for threat detection purposes generates reams of useless information, crowding out information on real public safety concerns. Government officials and assessments have repeatedly recognized that this dynamic makes it difficult to distinguish a sliver of genuine threats from the millions of everyday communications that do not warrant law enforcement attention. The former acting chief of DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) said last year, “Actual intent to carry out violence can be difficult to discern from the angry, hyperbolic – and constitutionally protected – speech and information commonly found on social media.” And a 2021 internal review of I&A reported that searching “for true threats of violence before they happen is a difficult task filled with ambiguity”. The review observed that personnel collected information on a “broad range of general threats” that provided “information of limited value”, including “memes, hyperbole, statements on political organizations and other protected first amendment speech”. Similar concerns cropped up with the DHS’s pilot programs to use social media to vet refugees.US citizens v FBI: Will the government face charges for illegal surveillance?Read moreWhat groups are most impacted by this kind of surveillance?Black, brown and Muslim people, as well as activists and dissenters more generally, are especially vulnerable to being falsely labeled as threats based on social media activity. Both the FBI and DHS have monitored Black Lives Matter activists. In 2017, the FBI created a specious terrorism threat category called “Black Identity Extremism” , which can be read to include protests against police violence. This category has been used to rationalize continued surveillance of Black activists, including monitoring of social media activity. In 2020, DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis used social media and other tools to target and monitor racial justice protestors in Portland, Oregon, justifying this surveillance by pointing to the threat of vandalism to Confederate monuments. DHS then disseminated intelligence reports on journalists reporting on this overreach. Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern and South Asian communities have often been particular targets of the US government’s discriminatory travel and immigration screening practices, including social media screening.How do you think the government should be responding to the intelligence failures of 6 January?A Senate committee report from last year found that DHS failed to produce a specific warning connected to what would happen on 6 January. An FBI field office had circulated a warning about an online threat with a specific call for violence, but it didn’t convince officials to better prepare for the attack. I think one takeaway from these failures is that broadly monitoring social media for scary things people are saying, without any further reason to suspect wrongdoing, tends to flood warning systems with useless information. This makes it harder to pick out what matters and sweeps in thousands of people who haven’t or wouldn’t do anything violent. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies already have ample and potent tools to investigate far-right violence without relying on indiscriminate social media monitoring, but they are not using these tools as effectively as they should. Instigators of the 6 January riot, for example, were members of groups that were already known to law enforcement. Some of them had previously participated in organized far-right violence, yet authorities did not bring charges or fully investigate the criminal activities of these organizations. So more indiscriminate surveillance isn’t the answer – in fact, such measures are much more likely to harm the very communities that are already at greater risk.TopicsUS Capitol attackSurveillanceUS politicsProtestActivismRacefeaturesReuse this content More

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      The people who turned in their parents for their role in the Capitol attack

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      The people who turned in their parents for their role in the Capitol attackMany young Americans are still reeling from their parents’ involvement in the violence of a year ago – and some reported them to the police A year on from the Capitol attack by loyalist supporters of Donald Trump, many families are still reeling from members outing each other to law enforcement and offspring traumatized by their parents’ involvement in the insurrection.Biden condemns Trump’s ‘web of lies’ a year on from deadly Capitol assaultRead moreJackson Reffitt, a 19-year old from Texas, called the FBI weeks before his father, Guy Reffitt, stormed the US Capitol on January, saying that his father had been hinting at doing “something big”, Teen Vogue reported.In text messages obtained by the magazine, Jackson’s younger sister texted their father in a family group chat, writing: “Dad, please be safe!! You know you are risking not only your business but your life too.”Guy Reffitt replied: “I have no intention on throwing it away. I love ALL of you with ALL my heart and soul. This is for our country and for ALL OF YOU and your kids. God bless us, one and all … ”Guy Reffitt has since been charged with numerous crimes.The charges relate to obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice for threatening his children, transporting firearms with the intention of using them during the mob attack on the Capitol, and a misdemeanor charge of accessing Secret Service-protected grounds without lawful authority.While in jail awaiting trial, the senior Reffitt texted news reports to the family group chat that featured photos of himself at the riots.Jackson told Teen Vogue that as the attacks unfolded, live on television, he received a phone call from the FBI, asking him to confirm his father’s identity and he confirmed that it was his father at the riot.Jackson now lives away from his family and rarely communicates with them.“He used to be one of the best dads ever,” he told the magazine. “He made me the man I am today. He taught me to be honest, not to steal, all that cliche stuff. I believe he brought me up to do what I did.”When Jackson does talk to his mother, she calls him “the Gestapo”, referring to Nazi secret police. His older sister, Sarah, 24, reportedly remains in disbelief towards Jackson.According to Sarah, she knows that their father loves Jackson, which in turn makes her even more upset to accept the fact that her brother turned him in to the FBI.“It’s hard not to condemn Jackson in defending my father,” she said. “I’m not gonna call [my dad] a hero for going [to the Capitol],” she added, but said: “He’s a hero to me because he’s my dad, but not for that.”Sarah also does not think her father should be jailed as he awaits trial. Unlike the judge in Guy Reffitt’s case, she does not see her father as a danger to the community.In a jailhouse letter obtained by ProPublica, Guy Reffitt wrote: “January 6 was nothing short of a satirical way to overthrow a government. If overthrow was the quest, it would have no doubt been overthrown.”On Thursday, Joe Biden, and Liz Cheney, the Republican congresswoman and the co-chair of the Capitol attack select committee, spoke about how close the mob came to violently overturning the election result – but failed.Meanwhile, Robyn Sweet, the 35-year-old daughter of a Virginia man, Douglas Sweet, is dealing with being the daughter of a Capitol Hill insurrectionist.Douglas Sweet, a staunch Donald Trump supporter, has been sentenced to 36 months’ probation with one month of home detention, fined and ordered to perform community service. Robyn Sweet said that once, when she was protesting against schools being named after Confederate generals, she saw her father across a parking lot, standing under a Confederate flag with his friends.“It’s like we’re living these mirrored lives,” Robyn told the magazine. When a friend sent her a link to a news report that mentioned her father as one of the rioters arrested on 6 January, Robyn said she felt relieved because she knew he was safe.Since then, Robyn and her father have limited their conversation topics to only light ones.“We can’t even talk about religion, politics or current events,” she said. While Jackson and Robyn continue to remain in touch with their families, albeit to different extents, 19-year-old Helena Duke has not spoken to her mother, Therese Duke, since the day she found out that her mother was part of the Capitol mob.After a video showing Therese harassing a Capitol police officer and then being punched in the face surfaced online, Helena tweeted, in what has become a viral post: “Hi mom, remember the time you told me I shouldn’t go to [Black Lives Matter] protests because they could get violent … this you?”Helena has since moved across the country from her mother and says that they are barely in contact.“It horrifies me to this day that she did such a thing. I’ve attempted to close the last chapter of my life in order to heal fully,” Helena said.Nevertheless, Helena mourns the relationship that she used to have with her mother. “As a child, my mother was my idol. She was the ‘fun mom’ who all my friends adored. She was so loving and full of life. I wish people knew how painful it is to grieve the life of a parent who is still living,” Helena said.Since the riots, federal prosecutors have brought cases against 727 individuals over their involvement in the deadly riots.TopicsUS Capitol attackUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Assault on American democracy has gained pace since US Capitol attack

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      Assault on American democracy has gained pace since US Capitol attackAnalysis: Republican strategy has focused on sowing doubt about 2020’s result, passing new laws and taking over key election offices On 6 January 2021, it seemed like the stitching holding America’s democracy together might finally collapse. As armed supporters of a defeated president laid siege to the Capitol, the US Congress did something extraordinary – it suspended the official procedure to certify the winner of a presidential election.The attack was eventually put down and Congress returned to officially certify Joe Biden’s victory. “They tried to disrupt our democracy. They failed,” Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, said when the Senate came back into session.Sign up for the Guardian’s Fight to Vote newsletterBut the effort to disrupt and undermine American democracy didn’t end on 6 January. In fact, it has speeded up over the 12 months since then.Working in state legislatures across the US, Republicans have launched a methodical effort to undermine the post-election processing of votes and the people who count them. One year after the effort to steal the 2020 election for Donald Trump failed, Republicans have put in place machinery to ensure future attempts could be successful. The potential for a stolen election in the US is higher than ever.In recent years there has been growing alarm over the way the Republican party has eagerly embraced voter suppression – efforts to change election rules to make it harder to vote. But what’s happening now, experts say, is new – an effort to take control of the administration of elections and vote counting itself.The insurrection is only the tip of the iceberg | Sidney BlumenthalRead more“What we’re seeing is an unprecedented, multi-pronged assault on the foundations of our democracy,” said Wendy Weiser, who directs the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “We’re really seeing an all-out effort to undermine election administration in America.”Republicans have built this attack around three pillars. First, they have encouraged and fomented doubt about the results of the 2020 election. Second, they have passed new laws that inject more partisanship into election administration. And third, they have sought to take over key election offices from which they could exert enormous unilateral power over vote-counting and post-election certification.Republicans have taken the idea of a stolen election from the fringes of political discourse and made it party orthodoxy. Senior Republicans have castigated fellow members who have contested claims the election was illegitimate. At the state level, Republicans have continued to spread false accusations about the 2020 vote and embraced unusual and partisan reviews of the 2020 election that have used shoddy methodology to question the results.In Arizona, Republicans hired Cyber Ninjas, a firm with no election experience to lead a widely panned review of the election results in the state’s largest county. The final report affirmed Biden’s win, but also suggested there were irregularities. The claims were immediately explained and debunked. In Wisconsin, Republican legislators authorized their own post-election inquiry, led by a former state supreme court justice who has hired partisan staffers, threatened to jail mayors of some of the state’s biggest cities and said he doesn’t know how elections work.In 2020, Trump allies pushed state lawmakers in Georgia and Arizona to reject the popular vote in their state and choose their own electors. That effort was unsuccessful. But the focus on undermining the 2020 results now appears to be laying the groundwork to allow lawmakers to successfully do this in 2024 and beyond, said Jessica Marsden, a lawyer at Protect Democracy who is tracking election subversion efforts.“In both Arizona and Georgia, you had the governors not willing to go along with that game, they would have been doing that quite explicitly to throw out the vote of their own constituents,” Marsden said. “What the disinformation campaign does is try to lower the political cost of throwing out election results by creating a lot of uncertainty about what the true results were.”The effort appears to be working – 71% of Republicans believe Biden’s victory was not legitimate, according to a recent UMass Amherst poll.There was also a surge of bills last year that sought to interfere with election administration in 2021. As of mid-December last year, 262 election interference bills had been introduced in 41 states, according to the States United Democracy Center. Thirty-two of those bills have become law in 17 states.Among them is a new law in Georgia that gives state lawmakers the authority to review local election boards and replace them if the state election board determines they are underperforming. Separate from that law, Georgia Republicans have also quietly acted to remove Democrats from their positions on county election boards. A new Arkansas law allows state officials to investigate irregularities and remove local election officials from their posts if needed.In Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, a Republican US senator, has suggested that the Republican-controlled legislature should unilaterally assert control of federal elections, eliminating the six-member bipartisan commission that runs elections in the state. Republicans in the state legislature have also called for criminal punishment for members of the commission as well as its non-partisan administrator.“What’s going in Wisconsin is sort of the canary in the coalmine of what is spreading across the United States,” said Ann Jacobs, a Democrat who chairs the six-person panel that oversees elections in Wisconsin. “There is a faction of the Republican party that is openly embracing the idea that people’s votes should not count.”Beyond laws, Republicans who believe the election was stolen have also launched an aggressive effort to win elections for secretary of state, the top election official in many places. They are targeting offices in Michigan, Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin, all key swing states where secretaries played a key role in ensuring a fair vote count in 2020.In Michigan, Republicans have also tapped election deniers to serve on local canvassing boards, responsible for local election certification, in several counties, a role from which they could cause significant damage in future elections.That effort comes as a flood of election officials have left their jobs in the last year facing a flood of harassment and other threats, opening up opportunities for inexperienced and partisan workers to fill the void. It has raised fears over what might happen in 2024’s presidential election, especially if Trump runs again.Democrats are still seeking a way to block this kind of subversion.The Freedom to Vote Act, one of two sweeping voting rights bills stalled in Congress, would prohibit the removal of election officials without cause and strengthens protections for election workers. It also requires the use of paper ballots, creating a paper trail to verify after an election, and sets minimum election standards around election rules. But even though Democrats have pledged they will find a way to pass the bill, they have yet to find a way around the filibuster to do so.While Democrats try to find a way forward, Weiser, the Brennan Center expert, noted the Republicans campaign already appeared to be succeeding.“We have vote suppression measures in place. We have qualified, professional election administrators across the country having left their positions,” she said. “We have candidates for election office at the gubernatorial level saying that they would refuse to certify election results if it didn’t turn out a certain way.“We already have significant damage to our electoral system that’s already in place. That we’re already going to be living with.”TopicsUS politicsThe fight to voteUS Capitol attackRepublicansUS elections 2020analysisReuse this content More

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      Congressman Jamie Raskin on the day democracy almost crumbled in the US: Politics Weekly podcast

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      Jonathan Freedland speaks to the House Representative from Maryland about last January’s Capitol riots, leading an impeachment trial against Trump, investigating colleagues and how his own grief influenced his work in 2021

      How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

      Archive: C-SPAN, NBC, CNBC In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy, is available here Listen to David Smith on Thursday’s episode of Today in Focus Send your questions and feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com Help support the Guardian by going to gu.com/supportpodcasts More

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      Threats against US lawmakers rose ahead of 6 January anniversary, agency says

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      Threats against US lawmakers rose ahead of 6 January anniversary, agency saysFBI and DHS flagged content that could ‘inspire violence by lone offenders against government officials’ The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has warned of an increase in extremist content and threats against US lawmakers in the days leading up to the anniversary of the 6 January insurrection, according to a memo obtained by the Guardian.Historians mark 6 January with urgent warning on threats to US democracyRead moreThe memo, sent on Thursday to state and local law enforcement, said that DHS had no indication of a specific and credible plot, but that the agency and the FBI had “identified new content online that could inspire violence, particularly by lone offenders, and could be directed against political and other government officials, including members of Congress, state and local officials, and high-profile members of political parties, including in locations outside of [Washington DC]”.John Cohen, the head of DHS’s office of intelligence and analysis, outlined a range of content on “extremist related platforms” that was concerning.In one instance, an “unknown individual” posted a video online listing 95 members of Congress who, the video claimed, were involved in voting to certify the “fraudulent” presidential election, echoing far-right misinformation that has spread since last year. The video called for the Congress members to be hanged in front of the White House and was posted on a forum that hosts QAnon conspiracy theories and was reposted by Telegram users and on blogs.The video was viewed more than 60,000 times across platforms, the memo said. Cohen also warned of a separate posting that referenced 6 January “as an appropriate day to conduct assassinations against named Democratic political figures, including [the president], because of the perceived fraudulent election”.The US Secret Service, the Capitol Police and the DC Metropolitan Police agencies were aware of the online activity and have initiated investigations “as appropriate”, Cohen wrote in the memo, adding that the Federal Protective Service had also expanded patrols in and around federal facilities across the US. The memo comes amid reports of a sharp rise in threats against lawmakers over the last year.DHS had recently warned that the US was facing a heightened threat environment across the country, as threat actors “continue to exploit online forums to influence and spread violent extremist narratives and promote violent activity”. The agency said it would continue to monitor the uptick in threats in the coming days.After federal authorities were criticized last year for failing to act on warning signs on social media before the 6 January attack, DHS established a new domestic terrorism branch in its intelligence office, which has been focused on expanded tracking of online threats.Earlier on Thursday, Joe Biden denounced Donald Trump for spreading a “web of lies” about the 2020 election and accused Trump and his allies of holding a “dagger at the throat of American democracy”.TopicsUS Capitol attackFBISecret ServiceThe far rightUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Historians mark 6 January with urgent warning on threats to US democracy

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      Historians mark 6 January with urgent warning on threats to US democracyTheir comments come as many Americans, particularly Trump supporters, continue to deny the dark reality of the Capitol insurrection Some of America’s most prominent historians gave an urgent warning about the state of American democracy as they gathered on Capitol Hill on Thursday to commemorate the 6 January insurrection.Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham condemned the attack on the Capitol, which was carried out by a group of former president Donald Trump’s supporters to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.They warned that the US remained at a crucial turning point amid ongoing threats to its democratic systems.Biden condemns Trump’s ‘web of lies’ a year on from deadly Capitol assaultRead more“What you saw a year ago today was the worst instincts of both human nature and American politics,” Meacham said. “And it’s either a step on the way to the abyss or it is a call to arms figuratively for citizens to engage.”Echoing Meacham’s message, Goodwin argued that this moment represents an opportunity for Americans to rededicate themselves to the cause of democracy, citing the example set by those who fought for the Union in the civil war and marched for civil rights in the 1960’s.“We’ve come through these really tough times before,” Goodwin said. “We’ve had lots of people who were willing to step up and put their public lives against their private lives. And that’s what we’ve got to depend on today. That’s what we need in these years and months ahead.”The historians’ comments came as many Americans, particularly those who support Trump, continue to deny the dark reality of the Capitol insurrection.Only about 4 in 10 Republicans describe the 6 January attack as very violent or extremely violent, according to a recent AP-NORC poll. About 30% of Republicans say the insurrection was not violent at all, while another 30% say it was only somewhat violent.The insurrection resulted in the deaths of five people, including US Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick. In the year since, four other law enforcement officers who responded to the Capitol that day – Capitol police officer Howard Liebengood, and Gunther Hashida, Kyle DeFreytag and Jeffrey Smith of Washington’s Metropolitan police department – have died by suicide. More than 100 other officers were injured on 6 January, and many of them continue to struggle with traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.At the historians’ event, House speaker Nancy Pelosi played a video depicting some of the violence that occurred during the insurrection. The video included footage showing law enforcement officers being beaten and attacked with chemical spray and hockey sticks by insurrectionists.“One year later, it is essential that we do not allow anyone to rewrite history or whitewash the gravity of what took place,” Pelosi said.Despite the chilling evidence of the insurrection’s devastating consequences, Trump himself used the anniversary as an opportunity to spread the “big lie” of widespread fraud in the 2020 election and downplay the violence of the attack.“To watch Biden speaking is very hurtful to many people. They’re the ones who tried to stop the peaceful transfer with a rigged election,” Trump said in a statement full of wrong and baseless allegations. “Never forget the crime of the 2020 presidential election.”In his own scathing remarks to commemorate the anniversary of the attack, Biden accused his predecessor of having “created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election,” and the president underscored the need to set the record straight about 6 January.“The former president and his supporters are trying to rewrite history. They want you to see election day as the day of insurrection and the riot that took place here on January 6th as the true expression of the will of the people,” Biden said on Capitol Hill. “Can you think of a more twisted way to look at this country – to look at America? I cannot.”Pointing to Trump and his allies’ alarming efforts to downplay the insurrection, Goodwin argued that the work of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack was vital and could help prevent similar violence in the future.“We have to retell the story of what happened on January 6, with all of the gaps filled in,” Goodwin said. “And I do believe that a line will be drawn.”TopicsUS Capitol attackDonald TrumpJoe BidenUS politicsRepublicansDemocratsnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden condemns Trump’s ‘web of lies’ a year on from deadly Capitol assault

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      Biden condemns Trump’s ‘web of lies’ a year on from deadly Capitol assault
      President blames predecessor for role in violence of 6 January
      ‘The lies that drove the anger and madness have not abated’
      Biden denounces Trump in anniversary speech – follow live
      01:43Joe Biden on Thursday forcefully denounced Donald Trump for spreading a “web of lies” about the legitimacy of the 2020 election in a desperate attempt to cling to power, accusing the former president and his allies of holding a “dagger at the throat of American democracy”.The US president condemned his predecessor’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election as a “failed” pursuit, but one that continues to imperil American democracy one year after the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol, when a violent mob of Trump loyalists breached the Capitol in an effort to stop the certification of Biden’s presidential election victory.Biden blames Trump’s ‘web of lies’ for US Capitol attack in first anniversary speech – liveRead moreIn a speech from the Capitol marking the first anniversary of the deadly assault, Biden was unsparing in his assessment of the harm caused by the “defeated former president” whose “bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or constitution”.“For the first time in our history, the president had not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob reached the Capitol,” Biden said, never mentioning Trump by name. “But they failed.”And yet the falsehoods and conspiracies that were a precursor to the violence still persist, Biden warned. He asked Americans to recommit to the protection of the nation’s 200-year-old system of government.“At this moment we must decide: what kind of nation we are going to be?” Biden said, speaking from the National Statuary Hall in the Capitol’s inner sanctum, one of several spots overrun and defiled by rioters on 6 January. He warned: “The lies that drove the anger and madness we saw in this place, they have not abated.”Trump originally planned to hold a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday evening, but canceled amid pressure from Republicans and conservative allies who worried it would be a harmful distraction.But that did not prevent Trump from issuing a series of furious statements in which he continued to perpetuate the “big lie”, claims that were rejected by dozens of courts, Republican election officials and members of his own administration.“They got away with something, and it is leading to our country’s destruction,” Trump wrote in one such salvo that made no mention of the violence that occurred in his name that day. Four people died in the chaos of the hours-long siege, as rioters overran police barricades, wielding flagpoles and fire extinguishers to break windows and battle law enforcement officers. One US Capitol police officer, Brian Sicknick, died a day after being attacked by rioters and 140 police officers were injured.Most Republicans were physically absent from the Capitol on Thursday, with many of party’s senators, including the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, traveling to Georgia for the funeral of their former colleague Johnny Isakson, who died in December.In a statement, McConnell called the attack “antithetical to the rule of law” and said he supported efforts to hold accountable those who broke the law.‘I was there’: Democrat recalls horror and fury on day of Capitol attackRead moreBut he did not denounce Trump as he and many Republicans did in the aftermath of the attack. But a year on, the shock and revulsion have dissipated, and Trump remains the most powerful and popular figure in a Republican party, and questions about the legitimacy of Biden’s election have become a litmus test for candidates seeking the former president’s endorsement. Biden’s speech opened a day-long program of events on Capitol Hill to mark the anniversary.Throughout the day, members grew emotional as they recounted their memories of the insurrection – the sound of pounding fists at the door of the chamber, the whirring of the escape hoods, the shock of a Confederate flag in the hallowed halls.Others recounted quiet moments of grief and acts of heroism – the bravery of the police officers who defended the Capitol and the aides with the presence of mind to carry to safety the wooden boxes containing the electoral votes.Presiding over the House floor on Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that democracy had prevailed when members returned to the Capitol after the riot to ratify Biden’s electoral victory.“The Congress, because of the courage of all of you, rose to honor our oath and protect our democracy,” she said, before leading members – all Democrats with the exception of congresswoman Liz Cheney – in a moment of silence.Speaking just before Biden, vice-president Kamala Harris, a former California senator who was in the Capitol on 6 January last year, said the rioters not only defiled the building but assaulted “the institutions, the values, the ideals that generations of Americans have marched, picketed and shed blood to establish and defend”.In their comments, Harris and Biden called for the protection of voting rights. Harris urged lawmakers to pass the voting rights bills currently stalled before Congress.The insurrection was the last desperate attempt by Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election, after a series of legal challenges and a pressure campaign failed.On that day, a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol after Trump encouraged them to “fight like hell” as Congress convened to certify the election result. But lawmakers who had initially fled for their lives during the siege returned to the chamber, shaken but resolved, to make Trump’s electoral defeat official.In the year since the attack, elected officials, historians and democracy advocates have warned that the threat of future violence remains high. Trump and his allies have spent the past months rewriting the 6 history of January, downplaying the violence and shifting the blame.It was the the worst attack on the Capitol since it was burned by British forces in 1814.Much of Biden’s speech was devoted to establishing fact from fiction about the events of 6 January, as a revisionist history of the attack, promoted by Trump and his allies, takes root.“That’s what great nations do: they don’t bury the truth, they face up to it,” he said. “We must be absolutely clear about what is the truth and what is a lie.”“This wasn’t a group of tourists. This was an armed insurrection. They weren’t looking to uphold the will of the people, they were looking to deny the will of the people,” Biden said. All the while, Biden charged, Trump watched the violence unfold on TV from the private dining room near the Oval office. “He can’t accept that he lost.”TopicsUS Capitol attackJoe BidenDonald TrumpUS politicsRepublicansDemocratsnewsReuse this content More