United States, 2021 — dissident coup attempt
Event Summary
On 6 January 2021 a mob of supporters of the outgoing United States president Donald Trump violently stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C., in an attempt to disrupt the congressional certification of Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election, an assault that a congressional inquiry later characterized as the culmination of an attempted coup.
Trump, refusing to concede his defeat, had for weeks spread false claims that the election had been stolen through massive fraud, and on the day Congress met to formally count the electoral votes, he addressed a large rally near the White House and urged his supporters to march on the Capitol. Thousands did, breaching police lines and forcing their way into the building; lawmakers, including Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding and whom Trump had pressured to reject the results, were evacuated as rioters ransacked the halls, some calling for Pence to be hanged. Five people died in connection with the riot.
Order was eventually restored by law enforcement and the National Guard, and Congress reconvened that night to complete the certification, confirming Biden's win. Trump left office on 20 January, and the attack led to his second impeachment and years of prosecutions of participants.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
00201062021
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The certification of Joe Biden's victory was completed despite the January 6 2021 Capitol attack, and Trump left office.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
Wikipedia
New York Times
Chicago Daily Herald
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →