Today marks the fourth anniversary of January 6th, the day that saw rioters ransack the US capitol with the aim of overturning the 2021 election.

Many of the rioters were fanatical supporters of Donald Trump, who is set to become the 47th president of the United States, following the country’s November election.

Donald Trump addresses his supporters during a rally. August 30, 2024. Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI. Credit: UPI/Alamy Live News

Professor and political analyst Scott Lucas told The Pat Kenny Show that this event deeply shook himself and many other Americans.

“It took me days to realise the significance of what had happened,” he said.

“A lot of the initial pictures – you remember the guy who had the outlandish Viking horns and helmet and had his face painted, and you had people in all types of different garb and they were carrying away podiums, they had Confederate flags – and it all appeared to be at times a little of a really misguide prank.

“Then the reports started to come in about how many police officers had been wounded, attacked - scores of them – about how many rooms had been ransacked.

“Then, of course the ominous reports that those people [were] effectively carrying out what they thought were the orders of Donald Trump, [and] were threatening to execute legislations and even Trump’s own Vice President Mike Pence.”

Protestors enter the Capitol building during a joint session of Congress in Washington, DC on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. (Photo by Chris Kleponis/Sipa USA)

Mr Lucas said that he believes Mr Trump incited the riots in attempt to initiate a coup against the US government.

“Even if Donald Trump has not yet been found criminally liable for inciting violence on January 6, 2021, to all intents and purposes his hands were all over that attempt to overthrow the US system of government,” he said.

“In the days running up to January 6, the plan – and this is all documented, it’s on record – of Trump and his advisors was that ... they were going to get Mike Pence to block the certification of Joe Biden as president, because Pence is the formal chair of that session.

“What happened on January 5, the day before the session, is that Mike Pence let it be known to Trump that he would let the US system act as it should, as it was mandated under the constitution.”

According to Mr Lucas, this was the reason that Mike Pence had been singled out by rioters.

Consequences

However, Mr Lucas said it was clear that Donald Trump would not be brought before the courts anytime soon.

“Special prosecutor Jack Smith had filed the indictment against Trump - not specifically for inciting violence on January 6 but over defrauding the US public - because he spent months trying to overturn the election,” he said.

“The Trump team used every legal tactic in the book to prevent that case from coming to trial before November’s election - they succeeded in that.

“Of course, because Trump won that election, he said that his first act as president would be to fire Jack Smith, effectively scuttling the investigation.”

According to Mr Lucas, many of those who were convicted on ‘non-violent’ charges for the events of January 6 will likely be pardoned by Donald Trump once he takes up office.

Featured image: Rioters use tear gas while clashing with police trying to enter the US Capitol building, 06-01-2021. Image: Lev Radin/Zuma Press/PA Images