US Capitol riots:
when democracy stumbles
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The story
After months of fierce legal battles in a bid to have Joe Biden's votes ruled illegal, the former president was up against the wall. The Congress presided by his vice-president Mike Pence was preparing to validate the results of the unprecedented presidential election. It was therefore a desperate and unpredictable Donald Trump who appeared at the rally, aiming to “save America”, as his lawyer Rudy Giuliani claims. This is how a dark day for American democracy began.
The fact
On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, a crowd galvanized by the words of the former President of the United States headed for the Capitol, with just one objective: "Stop the Steal". Inside were 435 members of the House of Representatives, 100 senators and their parliamentary staff.
Ever since the election, Donald Trump had claimed he was the victim of fraud and has refused to concede to Joe Biden. As a result of this invasion of the cradle of American democracy, many videos of violent altercations between Trump supporters and the Capitol Hill police went around the world and shocked the nation.
The Capitol riots seen by Saul Loeb, AFP Photographer
Agnès Bun, Video Journalist
On one hand the day began quietly on Capitol Hill, while on the other thousands of MAGA supporters were being whipped into a frenzy by the speeches from Trump, his family and his team.
One sentence would light the fuse: “We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue and we’re going to go to the Capitol.” From this single phrase started a violent and determined movement that would later go on to the Capitol. Reporter Agnès Bun recalls:
What happened
"I saw a Trump supporter spit near the feet of a correspondent who was doing his piece to camera. They also yelled anti-China and racist slurs at Asian-looking reporters. As a French journalist of Asian origin, I started to grow very uneasy, and was glad the mask I was wearing was partly hiding my face."
Agnès Bun (Video Journalist)
Behind the scenes
Thanks to AFP journalists, this historic day brought together two points of view: Saul Loeb's, who decided to follow the rioters, and Olivier Douliery's, who followed the parliamentary employees. One group was motivated by a thirst for revenge, while the other feared for its lives. Saul took the infamous photo of a Trump militant supporter with his feet on Nancy Pelosi’s desk:
"The group of about 10 people acted like the room belonged to them. One woman protester lit up a cigarette. That’s when I encountered one of the protesters sitting at a staffer's desk and putting his feet up, looking through (Pelosi’s) papers. That's the picture that a lot of people have seen now. The image has come to symbolize Wednesday’s events and the affront to America’s democratic institutions. One protester left a note: ‘We will not back down’."
Saul Loeb (Photographer)
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