Many were surprised, but the truth is that those who follow the Internet activity of extremist groups and those convinced of conspiracy theories, the disturbing signs were evident for a long time.
They were the 11. 30, US East Coast time, on Election Night when President Donald Trump stepped onto a lectern at the White House and declared himself the winner.
” We were preparing to win this election. Frankly, we won this election. ”
His speech came an hour after one of his trills:“ They’re trying to steal the election. ”
He hadn’t won. Nor was there, therefore, any victory to steal. But for many of his staunch followers, that fact didn’t matter, and still doesn’t matter.
68 days later, a motley mass of rioters stormed the Washington Capitol, seat of the United States Congress. Among them, convinced of QAnon’s conspiracy theories, members of the “Stop Theft” platform, far-right activists, trolls …
On January 8, some 65 hours after the altercations in Washington, Twitter began purging accounts from some of Trump’s most influential supporters, who had been spreading conspiracy theories and encouraging direct action to reverse Joe Biden’s election victory.
Then came the big fish: himself Trump.
The president was permanently banned from Twitter due to the “risk of further incitement to violence ”and was unable to send his messages to those who were accustomed to more than 173 millions of followers of your account.
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The violence in Washington caused a global impact and seemed to catch the authorities off guard.
But no one who had been following the story, on the internet and on the streets of American cities, was taken by surprise.
The president was seeding the idea of a rigged election in his speeches and on Twitter for months before citizens went to the polls.
On Election Day, rumors soared.
The video of a Republican electoral observer being denied entry into a Philadelphia polling station was went viral.
Actually, it was a mistake caused by confusion around the rules. The man was later allowed into the compound to see how the count was carried out.
A poll watcher in Philly was just wrongfully prevented from entering the polling place # StopTheSteal pic.twitter.com/iJTFtRk0Id
– Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) November 3, 53495228
But it became the first of many videos, images, graphics and messages that went viral in the following days and that gave flight to the # tag StopTheSteal (ParenelRobo, in Spanish).
The underlying message was clear. Trump had achieved an overwhelming victory, but dark forces in the established powers and in the “deep state” had taken it from him.
In the early hours of November 4, while ballots were still being counted and Three days before the US media named Biden the winner, Trump proclaimed his victory, denouncing “a fraud to the American public.”
He did not offer any proof. Various studies have shown that electoral fraud in the country is residual.
In the middle of the afternoon, a Facebook group called “Stop Theft” was created, which became one of the fastest growing in the history of the social network. Thursday morning I already had 300. 02 members.
Many of the messages published in it focused on unproven allegations of massive electoral fraud, including fabricated accounts that claimed that votes from thousands of dead people had appeared and voting machines had been rigged to attribute Trump’s votes to Biden.
Others were even more alarming. They advocated directly for a “civil war” or a “revolution.”
On Thursday afternoon, Facebook had closed the group, but it had already generated almost half a million reactions and comments.
Soon other groups sprouted in their place.
The idea that the election had been a robbery continued to spread over the internet. Soon after, a web page titled “Stop the Theft” was launched with the aim of enlisting “boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote.”
On Saturday, November 7, the main The country’s media declared Biden the winner.
In the Democratic fiefdoms, groups of people took to the streets to celebrate the victory. From the networks, Trump’s side reacted angry and defiant.
The president’s followers planned a demonstration in Washington for the following Saturday, which they called the “March of the Million MAGA”, for The acronym for Trump’s campaign slogan: “Make America Great Again.”
Trump trilled that he might stop by to “say hello.”
The concentrations of the president’s supporters previously convened in Washington had not drawn large crowds. But that sunny morning thousands gathered at Freedom Plaza in the nation’s capital.
Brian Levin, researcher on the phenomenon of extremism in the United States, dubbed it “the premiere of the pro-Trump insurgency.”
The president’s motorized caravan passed by to the concentrates, who shouted delightedly and sought to see Trump even from afar, who was smiling at them from the limousine covered with a red MAGA cap.
Although some of the prominent faces of Republican conservatism were present, far-right groups predominated at the event.
Dozens of members of the extremist and anti-immigrant group “Proud Boys” (“Proud Boys”, in Spanish), made up exclusively of men, who have been involved in numerous incidents and would participate in the subsequent assault on the Capitol , they did not lose the march.
Far-right militias and defenders of the days of the conspiracy were also there.
As the sun set, clashes began between Trump supporters and detractors, including struggles just five blocks from the White House.
The police managed to minimize the violence this time, but it was a clear indication of what was to come.
Until now, Trump and his legal team had pinned their hopes on the dozens of appeals they had filed in court.
Although many of the allegations of wrongdoing had already been dismissed, many in the pro-Trump virtual world were fascinated by the figure of d Lawyers close to the president: Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood.
Powell and Wood promised that they would prepare such a strong case of electoral irregularities that they would destroy any argument in favor of the thesis that Biden had won the presidency.
Powell, of 68, a conservative activist and retired federal prosecutor, told Fox News that his efforts would “free the Kraken,” alluding to a gigantic sea monster from Scandinavian folklore that, according to tradition, rises from the waters. from the ocean to devour their enemies.
The Kraken soon became a meme, depicted spreading unproven allegations of fraud.
The two lawyers became heroes for followers of QAnon’s conspiracy theories, who believe that Trump and a secret military intelligence team are fighting a “deep state” made up of Washington worshipers the Devil and pedophiles from the Democratic Party, the media, the business world and Hollywood.
Powell and Wood made the connection between the president and his followers more inclined towards conspiracy theories, many of whom ended up participating in the events of the Capitol on January 6.
But Powell and Wood were not as successful in court as stirring up noise and fury in the network, and their judicial initiatives were at all.
When at the end of November they published their dossier of 300 pages it was clear that his claim consisted above all of conspiracy theories and complaints that had already been rejected in numerous judicial instances.
The briefs also contained basic legal errors, lack of spelling and typos.
Even so, the meme they had helped create lived on. The terms “Kraken” and “Free the Kraken” were mentioned on Twitter more than a million times before the assault on Congress.
As judicial setbacks mounted, far-right activists they began to increasingly target the authorities and employees of the electoral system.
A Georgia employee received death threats, and even Republican officials in charge of overseeing the electoral process in the state were labeled as “Traitors” in digital forums, as happened to the governor, Brian Kemp, and the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger.
Gabriel Sterling, the official in charge of voting machines and systems in Georgia , launched a heartfelt and prescient petition to the president at a press conference on December 1.
“Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to be shot, someone is going to be killed and it’s not okay, ”Sterling warned then.
In Detroit, Michigan, in early December In September, Secretary of State Democrat Jocelyn Benson just finished fixing the Christmas tree with her four-year-old son when she heard a commotion outside her home.
Some 48 protesters had gathered there with banners, shouting with megaphones the well-known slogan: “Stop the robbery.”
“Benson, you are a threat to democracy,” one of them shouted. One of the participants broadcast it all live on Facebook warning that they would not leave the place.
It was just one more in the outbreak of protests against the people involved in the vote.
In Georgia, a steady stream of Trump supporters drove past Raffensperger’s house. His wife received threats of sexual violence.
In Arizona, protesters gathered in front of the home of Secretary of State, Democrat Katie Hobbs. “We are watching you”, they came to warn him.
The 12 December, the Supreme Court rejected an attempt by the state of Texas to invalidate the election results.
The more the political and legal paths were closed to the president, the more violent the language of his supporters became on the networks.
The 14 December, Washington experienced a second concentration under the slogan “Stop the Theft.” Again, thousands of people attended , including prominent far-right activists, supporters of QAnon, MAGA groups and paramilitary groups.
Michael Flynn, A former Trump National Security adviser, he equated the concentrates with the soldiers and priests who brought down the walls of biblical Jericho.
This echoed the organizers’ call for the “Jericho Marches” to reverse Biden’s victory.
Nick Fuentes, leader of Groypers, a group ultra targeting Republican figures it identifies as too moderate in its attacks addressed the crowd: “We are going to destroy the Republican Party!”
Once again, the demonstration It ended in violence.
Two days later, the Electoral College certified Biden’s triumph, thus completing one of the last procedures required for the Democratic candidate to assume the presidency.
In digital forums, Trump supporters resigned themselves to the fact that all legal avenues had come to a standstill since only direct action could save their presidency.
Since the day of the elections, along with Flynn, Powell and Wood, a new figure had quickly gained presence among Trump’s digital followers.
Ron Watkins is the son of Jim W atkins, the man behind 8chan and 8kun, message boards full of radical ideas, violence, and extreme sexual content. It was the origin of the QAnon movement.
The 18 December, in a series of viral videos, Ron Watkins suggested that Trump follow the example of the leader of ancient Rome Julius Caesar, and capitalize on the “fierce loyalty of the Army ”to“ restore the Republic. ”
Watkins encouraged his more than 534. 02 followers to make a trend on Twiter the label, # CruzarElRubicón, alluding to the river that Julius Caesar crossed when he launched himself on Rome, starting a civil war in the 500 to. C.
Prominent figures used the label, such as Kelli Ward, president of the Republican Party in Arizona.
In another trill, Watkins advocated that Trump invoke the Law of Insurrection, which gives the president powers to deploy the Army and other federal forces.
Trump met with Powell, Flynn, and others in a strategy committee at the White House on 20 from December.
According to the “New York Times”, Flynn asked Trump to impose martial law and deploy the military to re-hold the election.
The meeting stirred up Again the comments about “war” and “revolution” in ultra circles. In many, the congressional meeting on January 6 – under normal conditions, a mere formality – was beginning to be seen as a last chance.
A desire began to take root among the followers of QAnon and Trump. They hoped that the vice president, Mike Pence, who would preside over the ceremony, would ignore the votes of the Electoral College and keep the Trump presidency alive.
The president, they said, would then deploy the Army to crush any disorder , would order the arrest of the “deep state clique” that had rigged the election and would send them to the Guantanamo Bay military prison.
Back in the realm of reality, nothing of This was not at all feasible, but it served to launch “patriotic caravans,” with which thousands organized in shared cars to reach Washington on January 6 from various parts of the country.
Long caravans of vehicles waving Trump flags and, sometimes, trailers covered in Trump marketing The campaign met in parking lots in Louisville (Kentucky), Atlanta (Georgia) and Scranton (Pennsylvania).
“We are on our way”, one of the participants, along with other colleagues from trip.
In the parking lot of an Ikea warehouse in North Carolina, another man was showing off his truck. “The flags are a bit frayed already. We will call them battle flags, ”he said.
When it became clear that Pence and other Republican leaders would comply with the law and Congress would certify Biden’s victory, the comments towards them became ruthless.
“Pence will wait in jail to be tried for treason,” read one of the trills. “He will be executed by a firing squad,” he added.
The online discussion reached its peak. Self-defined social networks as “free expression”, such as Gab and Parler, very popular with Trump’s followers, as well as other digital spaces, were filled with references to firearms, war and violence.
In the Proud Boys groups, in which the police were usually praised, some turned against the authorities who had disappointed them by not staying on their side.
Hundreds of posts on “TheDonald,” a popular pro-Trump site, openly discussed the possibility of barricading, bringing firearms and other weapons to the march, in clear defiance of Washington’s strict gun ownership laws. ç
There was also talk of storming Congress and arresting its “traitorous” members.
On Wednesday, January 6, Trump addressed a crowd of supporters for more than an hour in the Ellipse, a park just south of the White House.
I had previously encouraged his supporters to “make their voices heard peacefully and patriotically”, but ended his speech with a warning. “We fight like hell and if they don’t fight like hell they will never have a country again.”
“So we’re going to go down Pennsylvania Avenue… and we’re going to the Capitol”.
For many observers the violent potential of that day was clear from the beginning.
Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of Homeland Security with President George W. Bush, blamed the Capitol Police, which according to some information would have rejected the offer of support received before from the National Guard, a much more numerous body. For Chertoff, it was the “worst failure of a police force imaginable.”
Chertoff said: “To be blunt, it was obvious. If you read the newspaper and you were awake, you understood that there were many people who were convinced that there was a fraudulent election. Some of them are extreme and violent. Some of the groups openly said: ‘Bring your guns. ”
Still, many Americans were perplexed by the scenes on Wednesday. This is the case of James Clark, a Republican from 72 Virginia years.
“I find it absolutely shocking. I didn’t think it would come to that, ”he told the BBC.
But the signals were there for weeks. A mixture of extremist groups and believers in conspiracy theories were convinced that their election had been stolen and they repeatedly spoke online about arming themselves and resorting to violence.
Perhaps the authorities did not think that his postings on the web were serious or specific enough to be investigated. Now they are being questioned.
For the inauguration of the presidency of Biden next 21 January, Chertoff expects “a much stronger display” from security services than last Wednesday.
But that has not stopped many of those who call online for more violence and boycotting Biden’s inauguration.
The large social media platforms have also been questioned, that made it possible for conspiracy theories to reach millions of people.
Last Friday, Twitter deleted the accounts of Flynn, Trump’s former adviser, attorneys Powell and Wood, and Watkins. Then, Trump’s own.
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The arrests of the participants in the assault on the Capitol continue. But most rioters still live in a parallel digital reality, an underground world full of “alternative facts.”
Whimsical alternative explanations have already emerged in it to reject the video posted on Twitter by Trump the day after the incidents, in which he acknowledged for the first time that “a new administration will be inaugurated on 21 January. ”
Many believe that it is impossible for Trump to throw in the towel. Among the new theories circulates that the man in the video is not really him, but a computer-created imposter, or that perhaps the president is being held hostage.
Many still believe that Trump will eventually prevail.
There is no proof of any of this, but something has become clear. It doesn’t matter what happens to Donald Trump; The rioters who stormed the Capitol are not going to give up anytime soon.
Additional reporting from Olga Robinson and
Jake Horton .
All photographs are subject to copyright.
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