Elections are getting less safe in democracies and nondemocracies alike. Last year was the bloodiest year for elections in decades, with 54% of all national votes marred by some kind of violence.
The Pentagon has approved leaving 5,000 troops deployed indefinitely to protect the U.S. Capitol from domestic extremist threats, down from about 26,000 deployed after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The National Guard is a federally funded reserve force of the U.S. Army or Air Force based in states. These part-time citizen soldiers typically hold civilian jobs but can be activated by state governors or the president to respond to natural disasters, health emergencies or violent protests, or to support military operations overseas. Although many Americans are skeptical of any military response to civilian unrest, the National Guard is widely seen as a reliable peacekeeping force.
In the still shaken and heavily guarded US Capitol, thousands of National Guard troops still wander the halls. Glass windows remain broken. Doors swing without handles. And in the grand marble hallways, which amplified the shouts of insurrectionists just over a month ago, there is an uncomfortable silence. The end of Donald Trump s impeachment trial is only the beginning of Congress reckoning with the Jan. 6 attack, a violent ransacking of the Capitol that resulted in five deaths. While the Senate has spoken on Trump s role in the violence, acquitting him of insurrection after a wrenching five days of impeachment testimony, lawmakers who fled the violent mob are still demanding answers.
Despite Donald Trump’s seeming lack of interest in the project, a number of his followers around the US have been flirting with the idea of forming a breakaway party of the right to challenge the Republican establishment. Most of these have names which use the word “patriot”.
In Florida, former Republican voters registered the American Patriot Party of the United States or TAPPUS, for short – while at the end of January a spokesman for the former president denied reports he was planning to fundraise in cooperation with a group calling itself the MAGA Patriot Party National Committee.
Patriot was a word that surfaced repeatedly during the assault on the US Capitol in January, being repeatedly invoked to define the identities and motivations of those who invaded the nation’s legislative heart. Ivanka Trump herself praised the participants on Twitter as “American Patriots” – though she deleted her tweet after being challenged by other Twitter users for her use of th
Read more about Pelosi announces plans for 9/11-type commission to probe Capitol attack on Business Standard. Pelosi has previously called for the formation of such a commission and said she believes there is a need for it