A year later: How political experts in Northern California remember the U.S. Capitol attack

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On Jan. 6th, 2021, a mob of then President Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, causing damage and destruction in the wake of the presidential election results.

Multiple people died and more than 700 people were arrested related to their actions that day. Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Wednesday night, the day before the one-year anniversary of the attack, the prosecution of all those involved will continue.

Steve Maviglio, a Democratic strategist from Sacramento, says, for him, that day was personal after spending years working inside the Capitol.

“To see what happened that day, it was just mind blowing and it’s still difficult to get my head around what happened," Maviglio said. "This is the United States Capitol. It’s a sacred place. It's where government is centered."

According to a new poll from the Washington Post and the University of Maryland, nearly a third of Americans say violence against government is sometimes justified.

“You see there’s a lot of sympathy among Republicans for what happened there and that’s largely driven by Donald Trump and his grip on the party,” Maviglio said. “Hearing the President say he ‘loved the people there,’ not going on television until hours later to do something about it. I mean that is just amazing to me that the President of our nation essentially allowed that to happen.”

Another recent poll from NPR says 64 percent of Americans agree that American democracy is in crisis and at risk of failing. Craig Deluz, a Conservative commentator from Sacramento, says people who showed up to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 were angry for a number of reasons.

“Some of them [reasons] had to do with COVID restrictions and lockdowns, in some cases it had to do with what they felt was unfair practices by big tech and the mainstream media, and by some election officials to impact negatively the 2020 election,” Deluz said.

Deluz doesn’t deny what happened that day. But in his eyes, he believes the majority of folks there were peaceful.

“A minority of those individuals went too far and they destroyed property and they inflicted violence and they ought to be held accountable and I think most Americans can agree on that," Deluz said.

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• READ: Full text of Biden's speech about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol
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