What a difference four years make.
On Monday, exactly four years after the Trump-inspired storming of the U.S. Capitol, Congress certified Trump’s victory in the November election.
This time, no one encouraged people to try to stop Congress from doing its duty. No one violently broke into the Capitol and beat law enforcement officers.
In fact, the certification process was not only routine and peaceful but presided over by Kamala Harris, the person who lost the election. She said she would uphold the “sacred obligation” of certifying the election results.
That’s a far cry from Trump and many of his supporters who thought taking things in their own hands, through violence, was justified.
Since the riot on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, Trump and many of his allies have tried to sanitize what happened that day, including outrageous lies that included saying the violent thugs who invaded the nation’s Capitol were “tourists.”
Trump even called Jan. 6 a “day of love.”
That “day of love” has been classified by the FBI as an act of domestic terrorism that injured approximately 140 police officers and endangered the country’s peaceful transfer of power.
Those trying to revise history even made baseless claims that FBI agents had a major role in inciting the violence.
A recent report from an independent watchdog investigation found no evidence that federal agents were involved.
Fortunately not all Republicans have taken part in the disgusting attempts to whitewash what happened.
A bipartisan group of leaders condemned the violence. “American citizens attacked their own government. They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of domestic business they did not like,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, said soon after the riot.
Trump has said he plans to issue pardons to at least some of those responsible, as hundreds of criminal cases against the rioters continue.
Many of those who stormed the Capitol are far from deserving of any sympathy, much less pardons.
They sprayed law enforcement officers with pepper spray and then beat them with pipes and other objects. Many of those who have already been sentenced have serious criminal records.
On Monday, our government calmly and routinely did its work. Hopefully, GOP lawmakers and other Republicans will work to keep the rule of law and common sense in place over the next four years.