On January 6, 2021, I watched CNN as thousands of Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol. As someone well-versed in watching tragedy on television, I was struck by just how indisputable the facts were at the time: violent, red-hat-clad MAGA rioters, followed by Republicans in Congress, tried to stop democracy in its tracks. Trump had told his followers that the protest in Washington, DC, “will be wild,” and in the assault that followed his speech, some rioters smeared feces on the walls of the Capitol. Hundreds of them have since been convicted on charges ranging from assault on federal officers to seditious conspiracy. These are stubborn facts, the kind that do not care about your feelings. These facts include the inalienable truth that Trump is the first president in American history to reject the peaceful transfer of power.
It never occurred to me that these facts could somehow be perverted by partisanship. But three years later, we are seeing just that, as Republicans cling to the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” by Joe Biden and are poised to make Trump their 2024 nominee. And perhaps even more dangerous than the GOP ditching reality is the news media’s inability to cover Trumpism as the threat to democracy that it very much is.
I had to read this headline last week from the Associated Press several times because I was sure I’d had it wrong: “One attack, two interpretations: Biden and Trump both make the Jan. 6 riot a political rallying cry.” . . . . And perhaps the most offensive headline both-sidesing reality was from USA Today: “Biden and Trump’s split over Jan. 6 is as divisive as it is for voters.”
The facts of January 6 and its aftermath should be clear to any journalist who simply watched the events that day—and especially if they watched the damning House committee hearings or followed the exhaustive reporting since. It’s not Biden’s opinion that Trump is a threat. It’s not my opinion. It’s a fact. The guy who told Sean Hannity he wanted to be a “dictator” for his first day in office is, in fact, a threat to democracy. Liz Cheney warned that electing Trump again would be “sleepwalking into dictatorship,” and Chris Christie said that Trump “acts like someone who wants to be a dictator” because he “doesn't care about our democracy,”
But the problem is, when all you have is conventional political framing, everything looks like politics as usual. One candidate makes a claim; the other disputes it. Two sides are divided, etc. This framing only works if both parties operate within the frameworks of a shared reality. But Trumpism doesn’t allow for the reality the rest of us inhabit.
Journalists may be well-intentioned in trying to be “objective,” or they’re simply afraid of being labeled partisan. Either way, coverage of January 6 that gives equal weight to both sides—one based in reality, one not—is helping pave the road for authoritarianism.
History shows us that conventional framing enables extremism by making it seem like politics as usual; the Times infamously once ran this headline: “Hitler Tamed by Prison; Released on Parole, He Is Expected to Return to Austria.” Jason Stanley, a Yale professor and author of How Fascism Works, texted me: “Conventional political framing is by definition conventional. It is therefore totally inadequate for unconventional times. It makes a false presupposition of normality, that its audience is therefore invited to accept.”
Trump is such a powerful figure in the Republican Party that he’s all but flattened his political rivals. Perhaps motivated by Trump’s popularity in polls, these political rivals have accepted Trump’s version of reality; with the notable exception of Christie, they have largely gone along with his lie that the election was stolen.
In Iowa on Saturday, Trump said that the rioters acted “patriotically and peacefully” on January 6, and those in jail are “hostages.” . . . Describing such people as “hostages” is the latest example of Trump pushing a version of events divorced from reality—one that some in his party were quick to promote.
Every time elected Republicans repeat a Trump lie, the schism between reality and Trumpian reality grows. By endorsing Trump’s unreality, Republicans are effectively endorsing Trump’s autocratic nature in which everything he says is to be believed, no matter how baseless or just plain bonkers. But of all Trump’s many lies, his bogus claims about the 2020 election and the events of January 6 are the most dangerous for the future of democracy.
The current president, meanwhile, remains clear-eyed about this tragic day.
“We saw with our own eyes the violent mob storm the United States Capitol,” Biden said in a Friday speech pegged to the three-year anniversary. “It was almost in disbelief as you first turned on the television. For the first time in our history, insurrectionists had come to stop the peaceful transfer, transfer of power, in America. First time. Smashing windows, shattering doors, attacking the police. Outside, gallows were erected as the MAGA crowd chanted, ‘Hang Mike Pence.’ Inside, they hunted for Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi. The House was chanting as they marched through and smashed windows, ‘Where’s Nancy?’ Over 140 police officers were injured.”
This isn’t Biden’s opinion, or his side. It’s what happened.
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