A rally supporting President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. turned violent Jan. 6, as hundreds of people broke through barricades and stormed the U.S. Capitol.
While many appeared to be disorganized, engaging in petty vandalism and wearing costumes, later reports and law enforcement indictments have suggested that there was a cohort of individuals who planned ahead and intended serious harm to members of the U.S. Congress.
Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, were killed, while numerous others were injured.
In the weeks since, over 120 people have been arrested, including one Republican elected official, West Virginia Delegate Derrick Evans, who has since resigned.
Camp Verde
At the Camp Verde Town Council’s meeting Jan. 6, Vice Mayor Joe Butner ended the meeting by vocally condemning the incident.
“This has been a sad day in the history of our country, when a mob incited by President Trump invaded the U.S. Capitol, and interrupted the Electoral College certification process by the U.S. Congress,” Butner said. “We are better than this, and we must demonstrate that we are better by our continued emphasis and reliance on the rule of law. That is our duty at the national level, that is our duty at the local level, and every level in between. We are a democratic republic and a nation of laws, not of men. Let us never forget this.”
Clarkdale
Clarkdale Mayor Robyn Prud’homme-Bauer suggested that the Town Council approve a letter condemning the event and condemning rioters’ attempts to overturn the presidential election results for Arizona and other states.
“We may not always agree on the decision made by the majority of the people, whether it is an election or a vote of a governing body,” Prud’homme-Bauer’s letter, which was cosponsored by Councilman Bill Regner, reads in part. “But when a decision is made by the majority, we need to respect the outcome of those decisions and trust they were made with good intent. The outcome of the November 2020 election was certified according to the rules and law of the state of Arizona. It was a free and fair election. And we should be proud that over 85% of registered voters in Clarkdale voted in the election.”
However, the council decided at its meeting on Jan. 12 not to approve the letter, with council members arguing that it was not the nonpartisan council’s place to get involved in a polarized national issue.
“I personally agree with the sentiments of the letter. I don’t see the point of it, and I do not think it is representative of Clarkdale, but I disagree with council doing it,” Councilwoman Lisa O’Neill said. “We are a bipartisan council. We’re non-political. I’m not saying that what happened was correct. I’m saying that until we poll the people of Clarkdale, we’re not representing them on this.”
Sedona
“I meant to dedicate this moment of silence to the Capitol Police officer who lost his life Wednesday, Brian Sicknick,” Sedona Mayor Sandy Moriarty said at the beginning of the Sedona City Council’s meeting on Jan. 12.
Congressmen
U.S. Reps Tom O’Halleran [D-District 1] and Paul Gosar [R- District 4], the two members of Congress representing the Verde Valley, reacted to the attack on their workplace in opposite ways.
O’Halleran joined the rest of the Democratic Party, as well as 10 Republicans, in voting 232-197 to impeach Trump on Jan. 13 for “incitement of insurrection.”
“As a former law enforcement officer and criminal investigator, I spent my career gathering facts and evidence to pursue truth and justice,” O’Halleran stated Jan. 13. “Today, I am using the facts at hand to inform my decision to vote to impeach: Donald Trump refused to concede in a free and fair election, making countless attempts to over- turn the results that were all struck down in courts of law. He incited insurrection by domestic terrorists who attacked our Capitol, threatening the lives of law enforcement officers, staff and members, and desecrating the building that represents our very democracy.”
Gosar voted against impeachment, calling it “just another partisan tool for Democrats to vent their hate against President Trump.”
Gosar repeatedly expressed objections to the vote totals for Arizona, the state in which he recently won reelection in advance of the Jan. 6 rally, and was in contact with Ali Alexander, one of the Jan. 6 rally’s key organizers via Twitter.
On Dec. 30, Gosar posted, “I’ll be in DC with @ali [rally organizer Ali Alexander] and the rest of America. We will fight back against the leftists who’ve have [sic] engaged in sedition to run a Technology Coup. No tanks needed when you can drop hundreds of thousands of ballots or switch votes electronically. #StopTheSteal”
“Biden should concede,” Gosar tweeted on the morning of Jan. 6, before the Capitol was attacked. “I want his concession on my desk tomorrow morning. Don’t make me come over there. #StopTheSteaI2021 @ali.”
However, Gosar did not speak at the rally. He said, “I sat in a chair and enjoyed the early morning on the South Lawn of the White House,” Gosar wrote in an email. “Before the President spoke, I had to leave to go to work. I went to the floor of the Capitol where I introduced my objection under the Electoral Count Act of 1878.
“In the middle of my objection, vandals broke into the chamber and interrupted my duty as a Congressman, stopped the official proceedings of the House of Representatives, and thwarted my procedural and substantive rights. I had a right to object under the law, and I did. The vandals who broke in stopped me, and harmed American democracy in the process. I was thereafter returned to my office and on lock down the rest of the day.”
Gosar claimed the insurrection was partially due to “BLM [Black Lives Matter] activists” and “antifa terrorists” — a colloquial term for a decentralized group of “anti-fascist” activists — but when pressed, did not give any evidence backing up his statement, which is contradicted by both law enforcement authorities investigating the riot and Republican leaders.
FBI Assistant Director Steven D’Antuono said that “there is no evidence that anti-fascist activists were involved in the pro-Trump Capitol riots.”
On Jan. 13, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy [R-Calif.] said on the House floor, “Some say the riots were caused by antifa. There is absolutely no evidence of that, and conservatives should be the first to say so.”
Republican Club
At a club meeting of the Mingus Mountain Republicans on Tuesday, Jan. 12, Program Director Chris Prats handed attendees a guide for emergency preparedness, suggesting purchasing essentials such as food, fuel, toiletries, a HAM radio, guns and ammunition, with suggestions that “civil unrest will continue and increase,” that a civil, revolutionary, or world war is coming, and suggestion that the COVID-19 pandemic will intensify.
“We’re in a period of evil vs. good,” Prats said. “Everyone here should be in a prepared mood for what possibly could run [into] shortages. All we need is for some- thing to happen in Phoenix, and those truckers don’t get up here.”
In June, social media posts in the area also led to concern that antifa activists were coming to attack local businesses, most notably the Wal-Mart in Cottonwood, yet no protesters, no rioters, and no looters ever appeared.
