Storming the Capitol four years on - the debate still rages
When Congress formally ratified the election of Donald Trump as the country's next President on Monday, it was in stark contrast to 6 January 2021, as ITV News Correspondent Robert Moore reports.
Four years ago, a furious and aggrieved crowd surged towards the US Capitol.
The police lines quickly gave way.
Donald Trump's supporters took control of the building for 90 tumultuous minutes, as members of Congress barricaded themselves in their offices.
On that sequence of events, there is a consensus. But everything else is contested.
Was it a patriotic march that was highlighting a flawed election? Or a deadly assault on the very foundations of American democracy?
To a remarkable extent, the infamous events of January 6, 2021 are still the subject of competing narratives. Your view of what happened - and its significance - depends on what tribe you belong to.
A majority of Republicans feel the investigation of January 6 was politicised by Democrats and then weaponised against Donald Trump.
Democrats overwhelmingly interpret it as a wild mob that nearly took America over the abyss and for which Trump was the principal cheerleader.
It seems likely that soon after his inauguration on January 20, President Trump will commute the sentences of at least 1,000 of those convicted of crimes that day.
Today, writing in the Washington Post, President Biden has tried to reclaim the facts of that day: "We cannot allow the truth to be lost."
He argues it was a moment of mortal danger and shows that the certification of elections cannot be taken for granted.
Having been with the Trump supporters as they crossed the threshold of the Capitol four years ago, it's clear to me that it could have been a catalyst for a disastrous chain of events.
It is also true to say that many of those in the crowd were more delusional than dangerous. The defining characteristic of the group I was with on January 6 was their deeply held belief in wild conspiracy theories.
In other words, the villains of January 6 are more varied than are widely known. You can blame those in the crowd, of course. You can blame Donald Trump, for sure.
Yes, there were militiamen spoiling for a fight. There were Proud Boys and other ultra-nationalists railing against liberal America.
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But what about the social media companies and the conspiracy platforms that amplified the nonsense about a stolen election, about lawmakers hiding children in the basement, about Q-anon, and about the evil of deep state actors?
These were also the dark elements that mobilised the mob that day. And these other forces - including the invisible algorithms that drive the polarization in US politics - are stronger than ever before.
A true reckoning for January 6 remains elusive. Just as the central narrative remains contested in the information war that still rages.
Robert Moore was the only television reporter in the world embedded in the mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
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