When Donald J. Trump is sworn in Monday in a uncommon indoor inaugural ceremony below the Capitol dome, the grand rotunda will probably be crammed with dignitaries, lawmakers and supporters of the brand new president.
This is identical ornate room, modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, the place presidents and different dignitaries have rested in state and the place solemn nationwide ceremonies happen.
However 4 years in the past, the Rotunda was the backdrop for one of many darkest moments within the nation’s historical past, when it teemed with a extra vocal crowd of Trump supporters: the mob that invaded the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a violent try to cease the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s election.
Rioters radicalized by Mr. Trump’s lie {that a} stolen election invaded the Rotunda that day and clashed with police. Some mounted statues of outstanding American figures, together with Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford. They marched by means of the historic chamber as they moved between the Home and Senate and sought to disrupt a joint session of Congress, littering trash and particles within the constructing’s often immaculate heart, usually overwhelming guests with surprise after they get their first glimpse of the constructing. thriving inside.
After the unrest was quelled and the constructing was cleared, permitting certification of the election, Andy Kim, then a Democratic consultant from New Jersey, went to the Rotunda within the early morning hours of January 7. There, he was photographed sweeping up the trash that nearly inconceivably littered the sacred area the place main Individuals are honored in dying, most lately President Jimmy Carter.
“I requested myself, ‘How did this get so unhealthy?’ “,” Mr. Kim, a Rhodes scholar and former nationwide safety official, mentioned in a speech final summer season on the Democratic Nationwide Conference in Chicago. “So I did the one factor I might consider: I grabbed a trash bag and began cleansing up. What I discovered on January 6 is that we’re all guardians of our nice republic. We are able to heal this nation, however provided that we strive.
Mr. Kim, till then a little-known determine, was elected New Jersey’s new senator in November.
Photographs of that January 4 years in the past will linger as Mr. Trump takes the oath of workplace within the corridor, the place the curved partitions bear big work of America’s pivotal early moments, such because the touchdown of Columbus and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Mr. Trump mentioned considered one of his first acts as president could be to pardon these prosecuted for taking part within the storming of the Capitol.
