The Jan. 6 Riot Isn't DC's 'Most Violent Moment'

Tim Graham on Aug 13, 2025

When President Donald Trump called a press conference on Aug. 11 to discuss how he would use emergency powers to federalize the D.C. police and deploy the National Guard, the knee-jerk anti-Trump media launched into complaining Trump was doing something dramatic about the crime-riddled District of Columbia.

But the most obnoxious spin was dragging the Jan. 6 riot into it, which they can't help but burp out. CNN anchor Dana Bash lectured: "Just as we go to break, I should note that the most violent moment in recent history in D.C. was January 6th, and it was an attack on the United States Capitol by a lot of people who were doing it in the name of Donald Trump," Bash said. "And it included the people who were hurt -- included members of law enforcement."

In a similar vein that night, MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell proclaimed: "The biggest crime spree in the history of Washington, D.C., was on January 6th for Donald Trump, and Donald Trump did not send the National Guard that day!"

It's quite obvious that Democrats can reach for the same old hypocrisy hobby horse -- President Pro-Police nudged his most fervent supporters into a riot over allegations of a stolen election. But these complaints desperately need one of those "independent fact-checkers."

It's simply false to suggest that Jan. 6 was "the most violent moment in recent history in D.C." This obviously ignores the D.C. riots after George Floyd's death in 2020. It's downright weird to describe it as a "crime spree" when so many of the "rioters" were prosecuted for peacefully entering the Capitol and taking selfies.

This doesn't compare to older examples, like the riots after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968, which ended badly: "13 people were dead and more than 900 businesses were damaged," according to Global Investigative Journalism Network.

It's also not accurate to say "Trump did not send the National Guard that day." The D.C. National Guard arrived far too late -- five hours after the first breaching of the gates placed around the Capitol. The president expressed a desire to have a serious National Guard presence in the days leading up to the certification of then-President-elect Joe Biden's victory. But Democrats from Mayor Muriel Bowser to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn't want that. Neither did Trump's own Defense Department. Even after the violence began, the Pentagon dragged their feet for hours.

What really makes the Jan. 6 comparison so ridiculous is comparing this allegedly "most violent event" to an annual homicide rate of over 200 people a year. One person was shot dead on Jan. 6, and that's the Capitol Police shooting Ashli Babbitt. None of these liberal journalists ever want to discuss that. It's an example of a police killing they seem to find acceptable by their silence.

In the first 24 hours after Trump's press event, we found that between CNN and MSNBC, they raised the spectre of Jan. 6 a total of 31 times. These people made it plain when Pelosi picked her kangaroo court that they would attempt at all times to excise all memory of the 2020 riots (25 deaths nationwide).

But the decadeslong problem of violent crime in the "Murder Capital" can't be dismissed with the usual MAGA-menace material. It's a failure of Democrat Party governance, and we know our media never want to admit that.

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Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Tim Graham and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.