In Month Before Riot, One Ominous Phrase Dominated

Many big outlets are taking deeper looks into the violence that wracked Washington. Some of the highlights:

• The New York Times reports that the phrase "Storm the Capitol" was mentioned 100,000 times in various online forums in the month preceding Jan. 6, according to media firm Zignal Labs.
• One anonymous activist tells the Washington Post that she grew so alarmed about the specific threats she was reading on Parler, Telegram, the website TheDonald, and elsewhere that she called the FBI's tip line on Dec. 28. “I told them, ‘Look, they’re planning to kill members of Congress and they’re openly discussing bringing guns over state lines.’ I thought if that didn’t get their attention nothing would.” The FBI declined to comment.

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• At CNN, Brian Stelter assesses the photos, videos, and interviews that have emerged since Wednesday and writes that it is becoming clearer by the day just how violent the attack on Capitol really was. The news on the day itself was chaotic and hard to process, he writes.. "Only later did it become clear that lawmakers feared for their lives; that some of the attackers were hunting for congressional leaders; that there could have been a massacre."
• The Times looks at the effect of President Trump's words on his supporters that day, including, "You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength.” Supporters began moving toward the Capitol before he had even finished, per the story. Then came the news that Mike Pence would not upend the count. “You can imagine the emotion that ran through people when we get that word,” said Couy Griffin, a county commissioner from New Mexico, in a posted video. “And then we get down to the Capitol, and they have all the inauguration set up for Joe Biden. What do you think was going to happen?”
• So why didn't help arrive sooner as Capitol Police were overwhelmed at the Capitol? The Wall Street Journal reports that it took hours for calls for reinforcements to be approved. One factor: "Pentagon officials said they initially raised concerns because they didn’t want to be seen as intervening against what they thought would largely be peaceful protesters."

(Read more Washington, DC stories.)