Nevada remembers as US marks 1 year since attack on Capitol

Televised images from that day show the smoke and rage of rioters who breached security barricades, assaulted police and broke windows to enter the Capitol.

Inside, three Nevada men were part of a mob that hunted for Vice President Mike Pence and congressional lawmakers who were trying to certify the electoral vote from the states.

The mayhem and violence stunned the nation, and the world. It also laid bare the sharp political divisions that exist in America, and the threat to democracy upon which the nation was founded.

Rushed out by police

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., was on the Senate floor, ready to speak, when she was rushed out of the chamber by Capitol Police as rioters broke in.

“A year after the chaos and tragedy of Jan. 6, our democracy continues to be threatened by the same bad actors who fueled the violence last year by falsely claiming the election was stolen,” Cortez Masto told the Review-Journal.

Cortez Masto said the same extremists who incited the attack “are now pushing anti-democratic legislation across the country to restrict voting rights, which is why I remain focused on passing federal legislation to safeguard our democracy and protect Nevadans’ access to the polls.”

Meanwhile, in her Senate office that day, Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said she was preparing to go to the Senate floor to speak when she watched television images of violent rioters enter the Capitol. The memory still haunts her, she said.

But Rosen and her staff took defensive action.

“We began to barricade our offices, put furniture against the doors. We took our gas masks. We huddled in one office,” Rosen recalled in an interview with the Review-Journal.

Later that night, after the violence subsided, Rosen joined other lawmakers who went to the Capitol and certified the election.

“We took a stand for democracy that night, and it is a feeling that I was proud of and that will never leave me,” Rosen said.

“I’ve done a lot of reflection,” Rosen said about the attack, “and I think it has forever changed the country.”

President speaks in Capitol

Democrats plan to mark the anniversary with a prayer vigil, testimonials from lawmakers and remarks by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in National Statuary Hall in the Capitol.

Former President Donald Trump, who was impeached by the House for inciting an insurrection but exonerated by the Senate, had planned a news conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida but canceled it citing an ongoing congressional investigation that he called a “witch hunt” and news media bias in its coverage of the riot.

Still, former White House adviser Steve Bannon, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., are expected to address Trump supporters. Other events by Trump supporters are planned.

Several Republican congressional leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., denounced the violent attack Jan. 6. But GOP leaders are not expected to participate in events in Washington.

McConnell told reporters he planned to attend the funeral of former Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia.

Still, the approach to the anniversary by Democrats and Republicans underscores the sharp political divide in the nation.

The attack at the Capitol resulted in the death of five people. About 725 people were arrested on federal charges.

Events to remember

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said events planned at the Capitol would “establish and preserve a narrative” of the attempt to disrupt the certification of electoral votes in the presidential election that gave Biden a victory over Trump.

“These events are intended as an observance of reflection, remembrance and recommitment, in a spirit of unity, patriotism and prayerfulness,” Pelosi wrote House colleagues on recess this week.

In a letter to GOP House colleagues, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the actions of Jan. 6 “were lawless and as wrong as wrong can be. Our Capitol should never be compromised and those who broke the law deserve to face legal repercussions and full accountability.”

McCarthy also blamed Democratic leaders for the security breach.

“Unfortunately, one year later, the majority party seems no closer to answering the central question of how the Capitol was left so unprepared and what must be done to ensure it never happens again,” McCarthy wrote.

Meanwhile, a House bipartisan select committee is investigating Trump’s role in inciting violence to overturn the 2020 election. The two Republicans on the panel, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, have been pilloried by Trump and his supporters.

Trump repeatedly has said the election was stolen, a claim found to be baseless by federal judges, political experts and some Republican leaders.

Lawsuits challenging election results citing voter fraud were filed in Nevada and other key states. Every single lawsuit was dismissed by federal and state judges who found no basis for fraud claims made by Trump supporters and Republican Party operatives.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, co-chairman of the Democratic Attorneys General Association, told a conference call Wednesday that he defended the state against a legal challenge by the Nevada Republican Party and National Republicans to “stop the counting of Clark County ballots.”

“The lawsuit was a partisan power grab to stop Nevadans from having their votes counted,” Ford said.

Ford said many Republicans continue to spread “the Big Lie” that the election was stolen. Democratic attorneys general are fighting the misinformation campaign in states.

‘Not a national holiday’

Michael McDonald, chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, defended criticism of the 2020 election. “We are dedicated to make it easier for everyone to vote, and harder for anyone to cheat,” McDonald said.

McDonald insists “there was voter fraud” in the 2020 election, with abuse of mass mailing of ballots that allowed people to vote for dead people, allowed undocumented immigrants to vote and “people getting paid to vote.”

“Even one fraudulent vote is too many,” McDonald said.

But complaints filed by McDonald and others with the Nevada secretary of state’s office were investigated and largely rejected.

As far as Jan. 6, protesters exercised their First Amendment rights, but stepped over the line when they entered the Capitol and attacked law enforcement. Those responsible for the violence should be held accountable, said McDonald, a former Metropolitan Police officer.

He said Democrats, though, were trying to shake people with the anniversary of Jan. 6. “It’s not a national holiday,” he said.

Nevadans involved in riot

Many of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, assaulting police and federal law enforcement agents, told judges they were following Trump’s wishes to “Stop the Steal.”

The slogan was bannered at a Trump rally immediately before the Capitol siege began.

Most of those charged with misdemeanor offenses face fines, home confinement and probation.

The Nevada men involved were arrested on felony charges and are awaiting trial dates. Nathaniel DeGrave of Las Vegas, Ronald Sandlin, originally of Tennessee, and Josiah Kenyon of Winnemucca, have pleaded not guilty to charges that include assault on police officers.

A federal judge ruled last month against a motion filed by the lawyers for DeGrave and Sandlin to dismiss a charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, a charge that carries a sentence of up to 20 years.

DeGrave and Sandlin and Josiah Colt of Idaho traveled to Washington with weapons to take part in the attack. The weapons were left at a hotel, but the men donned tactical gear and carried cameras when they entered the Capitol.

Sandlin recorded a video inside the Capitol Rotunda. He was pictured smoking a marijuana cigarette. Surveillance film shows DeGrave and Sandlin assaulting police during the riot.

Colt pleaded guilty to lessened charges in exchange for cooperation with the Justice Department investigation. He is awaiting sentencing. FBI agents in Las Vegas arrested DeGrave and Sandlin near DeGrave’s apartment last January, following the attack. Both are being held in the D.C. jail.

Kenyon was arrested last month hiding out with his family in the mountains of Northern Nevada. He also is charged with assaulting police with a table leg and flag staff.

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said he is bracing for the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, but he downplayed a repeat of the violence that imperiled law enforcement, lawmakers and media a year ago.

Pelosi said this week that recommendations made to improve security of the Capitol following the attack last year have been made.

“As we approach one year since January 6th and continue our work to defeat the pandemic, it is essential that we protect the Capitol, which is a beacon of our democracy, and all who work within it,” Pelosi said.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.