A year ago, on January 6, 2021, The Capitol in Washington was angry with supporters of Donald Trump who considered the election rigged. Sébastien Paour was on site as a reporter. Today, correspondent for Radio France in the USA, he measures the historical significance of the event.
Sébastien Paour gets out of his taxi, and measures the extent of the human tide from the White House. Donald Trump just gave a speech there. This January 6, 21, Congress must validate the election of Joe Biden except that the outgoing president does not want to recognize the victory of his opponent. He promises it on twitter “the day will be crazy“and since the beginning of the morning, buses and trains have flocked to the Democratic capital, filled with Trumpist activists from all over the country.
At the foot of the White House, Donald Trump said: “We will never give up. We will never concede. We will never take back our country by being weak. (…) You must be strong. “… / …I know everyone here will be marching to the Capitol soon, to peacefully, patriotically make between your voices“.
While in Congress, parliamentarians from both chambers begin the process of certifying the results of the presidential election, protesters turn their backs on the White House and march on the Capitol. It was at this time that Sébastien Paour joined the procession. Impressive procession, as the dense crowd fills all the spaces with its American and pro-Trump flags.
There reigns at the same time a light atmosphere with folkloric accoutrements, smiles which can imply the idea of a show of force, by the only massive presence and a heavier environment with groups shod with rangers and equipped, apparently. he, for acts of violence. These two atmospheres will find themselves in the same temptation to force the doors of the Capitol. We know the rest.
One year apart, Sébastien Paour remembers. The images, no need to see them again on TV, they are in him. The reporter experienced the adrenaline of the permanent live broadcast by immediately grasping the seriousness of the facts. A year later, the commemoration speeches made this intrusion a major event in the country’s history. Democracy has faltered.
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For this commemoration, Sébastien chose to shoot a report in Bedford, Pennsylvania. In this village of 3,000 inhabitants, 9 out of 10 people voted Trump. And a bus left for Washington last year. The reporter lived in immersion in a population pool very marked ideologically by Trumpist positions, but which, a year later, does not endorse the events of the Capitol. They also do not support the silence of Donald Trump who has not budged, not said a word to call for reason, and just for that, they will no longer vote for him.
This January 6, 2021, the day was not crazy, it was dirty. It is a date that will remain as an indelible stain in the collective American memory.