All the signs of the Jan. 6 insurrection were there for those who wanted to see them

When Congress convened on Jan. 6, 2021 for a joint session to certify the results of the 2020 election, the warning signs were flashing red that Donald Trump’s followers would lay siege to the US Capitol in an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Flynn tweeted out a press release from the Ohio-based We The People Convention on Dec. 1 that urged Trump to “immediately declare a limited form of Martial Law, and temporarily suspend the Constitution and civilian control of these federal elections, for the sole purpose of having the military oversee a re-vote.” Addressing Trump supporters at the Dec. 12 rally in DC, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes repeated the call for the president to invoke the Insurrection Act, reportedly claiming that his failure to take action would result in a “much more desperate much more bloody war.” Only six days later, Flynn and lawyer Sidney Powell, who had been promoting false and unfounded claims about election fraud, made a widely publicized visit to the White House to urge Trump to declare martial law and order the military to oversee new elections in the battleground states he lost. Michael Sobczak, a Marine Corps veteran who served as commander of his local American Legion post in Escondido, Calif., posted a meme on Parler on Dec. 31 showing a gallows outfitted with nooses and accompanied by the text, “Government repair kit.” Sobczak wrote in the post: “The solution is simple, and the cure is permanent.” The makeshift gallows set up outside the US Capitol on Jan. 6 would become one of the indelible images of the insurrection. Lin Wood, the prominent defamation lawyer who had spoken at rallies in Georgia to support Trump’s false claims of election fraud, tweeted on Jan. 1 that Pence could “face execution by firing squad” for “treason.” It was clear before Jan. 6 that the expectation that Pence should intervene in the electoral certification would shape the actions that Trump’s supporters took that day. In an opinion piece entitled “Until Biden’s win is certified, the US remains vulnerable,” Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote on Dec. 26, 2020 that the “big showdown” would be “the Jan. 6 gathering of both houses of Congress” to certify the electoral vote.