“For the first time, I was afraid”

Processing the attack on the Capitol and what’s next [Mother Jones]( MoJo Reader, This week, the president of the United States organized a terrorist attack against the Capitol. I can’t quite believe I’m writing these words, but if there’s anything Mother Jones needs to do at a moment like this, it’s to call things what they really are. My colleague David Corn did that on Wednesday, as a mob poured into the people’s house, in a column headlined “[Donald Trump is Now a Terrorist Leader](.” He wrote: It is easy to declare this day a dark one. But what is truly sad is that it is not at all surprising. Trump has always looked to harness hate. He has always relished recklessness. He has always demonstrated that his only devotion is to his own interests. He has always revealed that he holds no allegiance to democratic values. Yet despite all of that, he was fully embraced by the entire GOP and the conservative world. (At the rally preceding the attack on the Capitol, Donald Trump Jr. proclaimed, “It’s Donald Trump’s Republican Party.” And he was right.) This was more than a deal with a devil. It was an abject surrender to a man of malice. To a bully. To a would-be tyrant. To a president who has become a force of terrorism. The tragedy of this week is that so many, from the Capitol Police to our elected representatives to some in the media, seemed completely unprepared for it—even though the warnings were there for all to see. Mother Jones senior fellow Matt Cohen was on the streets on Wednesday morning [observing]( groups of protesters mobilizing others to storm the Capitol. He followed them and ended up in the middle of the charge that broke down the barricades. As his phone was knocked from his hands, Matt, who has covered many protests in Washington, found himself thinking that “for the first time, I was scared of what the crowd might do, not of the police response.” (Indeed, one of yesterday’s biggest stories was how restrained the police response was compared to what Black Lives Matter protesters have had to endure in the same location.) Matt also recognized something else: “Rather than protecting me, my press badge could make me a target.” Not long afterward, protesters [turned on journalists](, chasing camera crews and dragging and punching an Associated Press photographer (the [video is terrifying](). Still, Matt and reporter Daniel Friedman kept reporting (here is their story on [what they saw]() and Mother Jones’ photo editor, Mark Murrmann, [compiled]( images of the mayhem. (Matt will talk about his experience on the [Mother Jones Podcast]( later this week.) MoJo’s team worked into the small hours to document all this; then, after barely a wink of sleep, we gathered for an all-staff meeting. We shared the experiences of the day—how worried Matt’s editors were when he didn’t check in at the appointed time, only to learn that he’d forgotten to carry an extra power pack—and as I looked at the thumbnail faces on the screen, I realized what had become crystal clear over those 24 hours: We don’t know how this will play out over the next two weeks (impeachment? More chaos? Both?), but there will be no going back to normal for us. Not if “normal” means acting as if this fight against authoritarianism, lies, and white supremacy is over. That’s a hard realization at a time when every bone in our bodies, and surely yours, aches to put Trump and what he stands for behind us. But after this week, we know that is not possible. What happened at the Capitol was not a fluke or a surprise, and it won’t stop. Long after Trump leaves the White House, Trumpism will remain with us: The [photo]( of Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, his top apprentice, greeting the mob with a fist pump tells you everything you need to know. This is not the end of the story—it’s the beginning. So this is what I commit to you: Mother Jones’ reporters will be on the streets, on the phones, and digging deep behind the scenes (as Mark Follman did in this story analyzing how Trump deploys a well-understood form of [rhetorical terrorism](). We’ll hold feet to the fire, as Madison Pauly did in [documenting]( just how few congressional Republicans could bring themselves to denounce the mob violence. We won’t participate in the reputation-laundering game that has already begun for Trump’s enablers: As our chief operating officer, Jahna Berry, [wrote recently](, media outlets should not be part of rehabilitating those who got us here. And we’ll also keep reporting on the only force powerful enough to stop these attacks on democracy: the extraordinary organizing that has delivered historic election results, including just 48 hours ago in Georgia. Just before the mob broke into the Capitol, MoJo’s Ari Berman and Jamilah King were recording a podcast conversation that drives this home. “Runoff elections were designed specifically to prevent Democrats from winning and to [prevent Black candidates in particular from winning](,” Ari [pointed out](. “So to have it be announced that Raphael Warnock is the first Black US senator from Georgia, and the first Black Democratic senator from the South—it felt far more historic than even Biden’s win.” Stacey Abrams and the many other organizers who built that result didn’t move on from the challenge in front of them. They kept at it, year after year, election after election. If I can offer one small destressing tool for you in this tough moment, I recommend listening to Ari and Jamilah’s [conversation](. It’s just 15 minutes that will restore your sense of what’s possible. If you have thoughts or questions, we’d love to hear from you. And thank you so much for everything you do to make Mother Jones what it is. [Monika] Monika Bauerlein, CEO Mother Jones [Donate]( [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755