Opinion: Don't forget what happened four years ago on Jan. 6
LA TimesPro-Trump forces versus the police on Jan. 6, 2021. Who didn’t know that attacking the Capitol was illegal? Four years ago on Jan. 6, not even most Republicans would have imagined this 2025 anniversary: The West Front of the Capitol — where rioters battled outnumbered police to breach the building, marauding and hunting for lawmakers — is currently getting gussied up for this month’s inauguration of the 2021 mob’s inciter: Donald Trump. Trump first excused those who’d assaulted police — “They had no choice” — and then suggested the police actually invited the rioters into the Capitol: “You had the police saying, ‘Come on in. Come on in.’ ” According to Trump, it’s the Democrats and Republicans who were on the House Jan. 6 investigatory committee — “political thugs” and “creeps” — who should be in jail. He was not only the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. military, but also of the rioters.” Biden delivered his answer to Trump’s perverse judgment this week: He awarded the nation’s second-highest civilian honor to Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the Democratic chair and Republican vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee — Cheney for “putting the American people over party” and Thompson for “dedication to safeguarding our Constitution.” But Trump’s pliant Justice Department could get the last word, alas.