As President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration inches closer, residents of Washington DC want to flee and not be around “that sort of hostile negative energy”.

With only 2 days left till Trump assumes office, residents are planning to stay away from the event.

Alejandra Whitney-Smith, a DC resident, has already made plans to leave the city and spend a week in a cabin without technology, the Guardian reported. “It [inauguration weekend] coincides with my birthday weekend, which I usually do spend in DC, but when the election happened, I told myself, ‘Oh, no, I can’t be here,'” she said.

Speaking about the re-election of Trump, she said it “represents the ugly side of America that people don’t want to acknowledge”.

She recalled the fear that crept up in Smith when her mother was working at the Library of Congress during the January 6th US Capitol attack by supporters of Trump two months after his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

She further plans to do some vision boarding, reflection and reconnection, during the inauguration weekend.

Expressing her dismay she admitted that she had a lot of faith that people of the United States witnessed what happened during Trump’s first term and would not “regress”, but also added that she knew people of America were not ready for their first Black woman president.

“But I also know the reality of living in this country as a Black woman. As much as I wanted Harris to win, there was something in me that still told me that America is not ready for their first Black woman president. Not only that, she was running against Donald Trump who has an almost cult-like following that is so powerful”, she said.

Tia Butler, another DC resident says that the memories of the January 6 riot and encountering pro-life protesters after the 2020 election makes her “not want to be in the city during the inauguration festivities.” She says that her views are very different from the supporters of the president-elect. “It says to me that we’d rather have a criminal leading our country than a person of color, or a criminal rather than a woman”, she added.

But this showcases one side of America. On the flip side, many conservatives and Republican supporters are excited about the inauguration. As of Wednesday, hotels in the city were 70% booked and fetching $900 to $1,500 a night.

Having said that, Trump does not have the best relationship with Washington DC. He labelled DC as a “filthy and crime ridden embarrassment to our nation” and has even vowed to radically rebuild the capital, recruiting billionaire Elon Musk to slash the federal workforce.
 

Washington, United States:

Undercover FBI agents were not present during the 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Donald Trump supporters, a Justice Department watchdog said Thursday in a report debunking a popular right-wing conspiracy theory.

“We found no evidence in the materials we reviewed or the testimony we received showing or suggesting that the FBI had undercover employees in the various protest crowds, or at the Capitol, on January 6,” Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz said in an 88-page report.

Thousands of Trump supporters rushed in the US Capitol on January 6 in a bid to prevent congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.

Right-wing media and even some Republican lawmakers have spuriously claimed that undercover FBI agents provoked the attack on Congress, which followed a fiery speech by Trump in which he falsely claimed the election had been stolen.

The inspector general said that while no undercover FBI agents were present at the Trump rally or the Capitol, 26 FBI informants known as confidential human sources (CHS) were in Washington at the time.

Three of the informants had been tasked with reporting on domestic terrorist suspects while the others were there on their own.

“None of these FBI CHSs were authorized to enter the Capitol or a restricted area, or to otherwise break the law on January 6, nor was any CHS directed by the FBI to encourage others to commit illegal acts on January 6,” the report said.

The inspector general also said there had been an intelligence-gathering failure by the FBI ahead of the January 6 attack.

“While the FBI undertook significant efforts to identify domestic terrorism subjects who planned to travel to the Capital region on January 6,” the report said, “the FBI did not take a step that could have helped the FBI and its law enforcement partners with their preparations. 

“Specifically, the FBI did not canvass its field offices in advance of January 6, 2021, to identify any intelligence, including CHS reporting, about potential threats to the January 6 Electoral Certification,” it said.

FBI deputy director Paul Abbate was quoted as saying this was a “basic step that was missed” in “understanding the threat picture prior to January 6.”

Trump was impeached by the Democratic-majority House of Representatives following the attack on the Capitol, but acquitted by the Senate.

He is to return to the White House on January 20 after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the November presidential election.

More than 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the assault on Congress. Trump has lauded them as “patriots” and “political prisoners” and pledged to pardon many of them when he returns to the White House.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington, United States:

Donald Trump supporters who were charged with storming the US Capitol are now expecting pardons from the incoming American president, who has lauded them as “patriots” and “political prisoners.”

More than 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the January 6, 2021 assault on Congress which sought to disrupt certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

“I am inclined to pardon many of them,” Trump, whose first term as president ended under the cloud of the attack, said at a CNN town hall, one of a number of times he made the pledge during his 2024 bid to retake the White House.

“I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control,” he said.

Trump has repeatedly played down the violence of January 6, even going so far as to describe it recently as a “day of love.”

More than 140 police officers were injured in hours of clashes with rioters wielding flagpoles, baseball bats, hockey sticks and other makeshift weapons along with Tasers and canisters of bear spray.

The assault on the Capitol followed a fiery speech by then-president Trump to tens of thousands of his supporters near the White House in which he repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 race.

Several Capitol riot defendants have already seized upon Trump’s election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris to ask that their trials or sentencing be put on hold.

Christopher Carnell, a 21-year-old from North Carolina, asked that a status hearing in his disorderly conduct case be delayed in light of Trump’s “multiple clemency promises.”

Carnell, his lawyer said, “is expecting to be relieved of the criminal prosecution that he is currently facing when the new administration takes office.”

Judge Beryl Howell denied the request.

‘Never face consequences’

Another defendant, Jaimee Avery, asked that her sentencing on Friday for trespassing convictions be rescheduled to a date after January 20, 2025 — the day Trump will be sworn in as the 47th US president.

“President-elect Trump, who played an integral role in the events of January 6, 2021, has repeatedly publicly stated that he will pardon January 6 protestors should he win the presidency,” her lawyer said in a court filing.

“It would create a gross disparity for Ms Avery to spend even a day in jail when the man who played a pivotal role in organizing and instigating the events of January 6 will now never face consequences for it.”

Judge Christopher Cooper denied Avery’s request to delay her sentencing.

Trump was charged by special counsel Jack Smith with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

But the case never made it to trial, and is now being wound down under the Justice Department’s policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.

Trump has not ruled out giving pardons to members of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militant groups, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy and received the stiffest prison sentences.

Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader, is serving a 22-year prison sentence for directing a military-style assault on the Capitol, while Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

According to the latest figures from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, 1,532 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol siege, including 571 accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers.

More than 940 defendants have pleaded guilty to various offenses while another 195 were convicted at trial.

Trump pardoned a number of his close political allies of federal charges before he left office in January 2021, including his 2016 presidential campaign chiefs Paul Manafort and Steve Bannon.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris will On Tuesday symbolically conclude her presidential campaign by delivering her “closing argument” from the same location in Washington D.C. where Republican Donald Trump incited a mob to attack the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 by claiming that the election was stolen from him.

“We’re going to the Capitol” he had instructed his supporters.

“We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about,” Trump spoke to the crowd. “And to use a favourite term that all of you people really came up with: We will stop the steal. Today I will lay out just some of the evidence proving that we won this election and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election” he had said.

6th of January 2021 was an ordeal that saw Trump being charged criminally for attempting to overturn the election results, while more than 1500 people have been charged regarding the Capitol seige since.

“And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore” Trump had incited his followers. This came in post legal challenges that failed after he declared election fraud. Even though Trump’s own Cabinet refused his allegations, his notions were held high by his supporters.

He officially started this protest when he tweeted on December 19th, 2020, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” He hoped that Mike Pence, the then-Vice President would have his back and would refuse to attest the election results, “Because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election … He has the absolute right to do it. We’re supposed to protect our country, support our country, support our Constitution, and protect our Constitution.”

After the violent “protest” went into a tail-spin, hours later, Trump tweeted, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly and unfairly treated for so long.”

Although Trump was not in the protest physically, he was watching it live on Fox News inside the White House. This protest that Trump started, got 7 people dead and 140 injured.

During a rally in Ohio, Trump labelled the rioters as “patriots” and claimed to help them as soon as he got into office.

Choosing to draw the campaign close at the same spot is a strategic move on Harris’ part that underscores her commitment to contrasting her vision for America with Trump’s election lies.
 

In the last 10 years, powerful symbols have frequently been used around the world to express popular outrage and protests. One of the more unusual memorials, nevertheless, has just surfaced in front of the US Capitol, which houses the US Congress and is the centre of the federal government.

This unusual sculpture, a massive ‘poop statue’ that represents the events of the Capitol attack on January 6, has drawn a lot of attention and served as a contentious and enduring reminder of the event’s importance in American history.

According to The New York Post, it depicts a large, soft-served turd sitting atop former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk in an apparent dig at former President Donald Trump and the rioters who stormed the seat of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

Also Read | First January 6 Rioter To Breach US Capitol Jailed For More Than 4 Years

“This memorial honours the brave men and women who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021 to loot, urinate, and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election,” a plaque on the base of the statue reads.

Also Read | Trump Supporter Who Rioted At US Capitol To Get His Spear, Headdress Back

According to The Washington Post, the National Park Service granted the permit request to Civic Crafted LLC. Julia Jimenez-Pyzik, the person who requested the permit, did not reply to text or phone messages seeking comment. The installation will remain on the Mall through October 30, according to the permit.