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00:00Well, today is the day that Donald Trump's re-election into office will be validated,
00:04exactly four years after the riots that saw violence on Capitol Hill, as Trump supporters
00:09tried to stop the same ceremony when it was for Joe Biden.
00:13Trump has called that January 6th insurrection a day of love, and vows to pardon many of
00:20the rioters as soon as he takes office.
00:22Well, here is Joe Biden's reflection on that day on Capitol Hill.
00:28Four years ago, January 6th, this Capitol was attacked by a violent mob.
00:32If you come over to the Oval before I leave, I'll show you the room that the former president
00:37sat in for three and a half hours, watching what was going on on television, the small
00:41dining room off of my, off the Oval Office.
00:44And our democracy was really, literally put to the test.
00:48And thankfully, our democracy held.
00:50But the big reason is because of the bravery of the Capitol Police and the local people
00:55who stood with us.
00:56Never forget them.
00:57They're guarding you.
00:58Well, it has gone down in history as the day that shook American democracy, extreme violence,
01:09up to two and a half thousand people, including members of far-right groups such as the Proud
01:14Boys, forcing their way into the US Congress, trying to prevent the certification of Joe
01:19Biden's election.
01:20Well, Donald Trump at the time tweeted about a stolen election, while leading politicians
01:25had to be evacuated.
01:27Protesters smashed the windows, they rifled through papers.
01:29And the situation only really calmed down after Donald Trump tweeted to tell the protesters
01:33to go home.
01:34Well, four years later, what do Americans now make of that day?
01:38All reporters in Washington take a look.
01:44Daniel Hodges is one of the Washington police officers deployed to the Capitol on January
01:496th.
01:50You could hear over the radio that there were officers already at the Capitol getting overwhelmed
01:54by the violence that the people were causing.
01:58So they called for backup, and that was us.
02:03We ran to the vans that we had taken downtown, put on all our hard gear, the pads that you
02:07see in the video, and made our way over here to the West Terrace.
02:12He says the crowd was far from peaceful.
02:16The crowd was more sparse.
02:19Further out from the Capitol, they were content to just yell at us, call us traitors, oathbreakers,
02:24telling us to remember our oaths, stormtroopers, that kind of thing.
02:30As we got closer, though, the crowd became more dense, more aggressive.
02:34The police officer and his platoon tried in vain to keep the crowd out of the building.
02:39But faced with sheer numbers, they finally crumbled.
02:42There was no getting that territory back once we lost the line.
02:47So we retreated.
02:49We went up some stairs there and went inside the Capitol building and reorganized, or I
02:54reorganized there, put on my gas mask.
02:58And that's where you see the viral video that I've been in, just a pitched battle between
03:03a couple dozen police officers and just an endless number of the horde.
03:11The man behind the mask is Daniel Hodges, being brutally attacked.
03:19I was in there as long as I could until eventually I got pinned against a metal door frame.
03:24I was unable to defend myself there, and some attackers took advantage of my vulnerability.
03:30Someone was able to rip away my riot baton and beat me in the head with it.
03:35I was being crushed.
03:37I was exposed to all the tear gas and the O.C. spray or pepper spray.
03:44And at that point, the only thing I could do was call for help.
03:54These images moved Americans from all walks of life and helped establish January 6 as
03:59a violent episode in American history.
04:02According to the Department of Justice, 140 police officers were physically attacked during
04:07the assault on the Capitol.
04:08We didn't start anything.
04:10They came from all over the country here for violence.
04:15We just did our jobs to try and defend our elected officials, all of them, no matter
04:21what party they belonged to.
04:22We defended all of them.
04:24We can speak now to Professor of US and International Politics, Scott Lucas.
04:29Thanks so much for your time.
04:30We're looking back, of course, it's the 6th of January, four years to the day of those
04:35massive riots on Capitol Hill, and of course, the same day that we're seeing Donald Trump's
04:39re-election validated, four years on from the riots, seen as an attack on democracy.
04:45What do you think is left of that movement?
04:51In some senses, it's not, as it were, a movement like a political party.
04:56It's not like you can put your finger on it like the Democrats and the Republicans.
05:00For example, the conspiracy theorist of QAnon, which is pretty much a social media movement.
05:08They won't pop up today as part of the proceedings that take place.
05:14But in other ways, the militias, the far-right extremists, those who advocated violence are
05:22now part of the mainstream.
05:25There are members of Donald Trump's inner circle, both past and present, for example,
05:31who were linked to the QAnon movement or reinforced their slogans.
05:37They included the former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, and they include Trump's
05:41current nominee to be FBI Director, Kash Patel.
05:45There are legislators who are linked to QAnon.
05:49There are, of course, those who have been linked to the militia movement who are now
05:53part of the mainstream.
05:54And perhaps most important, there are prominent figures who put out the conspiracy theories
06:00that were part of that effort to overturn the 2020 election and for Trump to hold office
06:05in what was effectively an attempted coup.
06:08When I talk public figures who reinforce those conspiracy theories, they would include a
06:12person like Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world who owns the social media
06:17platform X.
06:19Indeed, an Elon Musk who won't be an official part of the administration, but there's no
06:24doubt into the amount of influence he has on Donald Trump.
06:29Well, not only does he have the influence over Donald Trump, not only is Elon Musk part
06:35of the attempt to almost crush the U.S. system, to put in political appointees, to make sure
06:41that the Justice Department does not carry out its independent job, but serves Trump
06:46by going after his political enemies, by putting in a Trumpist to head the FBI, by
06:51putting in Trumpist to head up the Pentagon, the State Department.
06:55Not only is Musk part of that, Musk is trying to reproduce that takeover of the U.S. system
07:00in other countries.
07:01As I speak to you right now, Elon Musk is engaged in a sustained effort to overthrow,
07:06and I use that term overthrow, to overthrow the governments in the U.K. and Germany.
07:11And at this point, there is no check on what Elon Musk will put out, which usually is false,
07:17occasionally true, in order to whip up animosity, hatred and division, so he can increase his
07:23power and influence over the U.S. and over other countries.
07:26Indeed, I mean, we've heard the warnings from outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz saying,
07:31you know, don't be swayed by big business, don't vote for big business, vote for politicians.
07:37How much do you think that social media X is still having an influence on voters today?
07:42Have we not seen the danger of it by now?
07:44I'll give you one statistic that takes us all the way back to the first Trump term and
07:50the start of the conspiracy theories that are now part of the mainstream.
07:55Approximately 30% of Republicans in poll after poll believe the conspiracy theory that was
08:01whipped up on social media, that the U.S. government was run by Satanist and pedophiles.
08:08Satanist and pedophiles.
08:11We're now eight, nine years after those initial conspiracy theories, and they've morphed and
08:16taken different shape on social media in order to target vile enemies who are supposedly
08:22threatening the U.K. and America or Germany or indeed France.
08:28Sometimes those conspiracy theories will target certain racial groups.
08:32Sometimes they'll target certain ethnic groups.
08:35Sometimes they'll target certain groups of a different religion.
08:39Now that has occurred in the past.
08:41You know, our countries all have checkered histories of whipping up conspiracy theories
08:46to serve those who want to seize power.
08:49But the fact is social media makes this happen much quicker and with a much wider scope.
08:54So where do you see things going in the year ahead?
08:58At the end of the day, and we'll talk about questions of what you can do about social
09:03media, whether it should be regulated, controlled.
09:05We'll talk about dealing with people like Elon Musk.
09:08We'll talk about the question of, you know, Donald Trump as he reveals his policies.
09:13But two things are important.
09:15The first is, is whether institutions can continue to function.
09:19Because a lot of these attacks, these conspiracy theories, these attacks on the enemies within
09:24and without are attempts to break down the institutions so that there's no longer checks
09:30and balances, so that a man like Donald Trump can rule like an autocrat.
09:34But secondly, while trying to preserve those institutions, again in France as well as the
09:39United States, it depends on us as individuals.
09:43Are we willing to cut through the disinformation, to cut through the conspiracy theory, to discuss
09:48decently and with respect with others, to establish what is happening?
09:53Are we able to establish what we should do, which does not include violence, which does
09:57not include division, which does not include insulting other groups?
10:02Are we willing to do that as individuals or do we put our hands up and say, they win?
10:08That's a future which is not only for the United States, but I'm afraid for elsewhere
10:12around the world this year and for years to come.
10:15OK, Scott Lucas, Professor of US and International Politics.
10:18Thanks indeed for joining us and bringing us your eye opener, your view of the situation
10:23when it comes to politics across the globe.