The White House marked the fifth anniversary of the January 6, 2021, Capitol breach by launching a new website aimed at challenging what it says is a Democrat-driven distortion of events and years of politically motivated prosecutions against Americans who participated in protests that day.
The site prominently displays images of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi alongside members of the now-disbanded House January 6 select committee, including Sen. Adam Schiff, Rep. Jamie Raskin, and former Rep. Liz Cheney.
According to the White House, Democrats “reversed reality” following January 6 by portraying what began as a political protest as a coordinated insurrection directed by Donald Trump, despite what the administration says was no evidence of an armed rebellion or an organized plan to overthrow the government. The website argues instead that Democrats undermined democratic norms by certifying a deeply contested 2020 election while using federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to target political opponents.
A key feature of the site is a previously unreleased video clip of Pelosi, filmed by her daughter Alexandra Pelosi during the production of an HBO documentary. In the footage, Pelosi criticizes the lack of preparedness at the Capitol and says she takes responsibility for not ensuring the National Guard was positioned in advance. The clip was cut from the documentary and later released publicly by House Republicans.
Speaking this week at a House Republican retreat, President Trump cited the video while placing responsibility for the security failure on Pelosi, saying she declined an offer of National Guard support. “They never reported that Nancy Pelosi was offered 10,000 National Guard soldiers,” Trump said, accusing the media of suppressing that information.
Pelosi’s office disputed that claim, saying the president and the White House website mischaracterize her remarks. Her spokesperson reiterated that the Speaker of the House does not control Capitol security and accused Republicans of minimizing what Democrats continue to describe as a deadly insurrection.
Democrats marked the anniversary with an unofficial Capitol Hill hearing focused on what they called continuing threats to election integrity. Former select committee chairman Bennie Thompson said January 6 must be remembered as a violent attack on democracy, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries praised Capitol Police officers and warned against efforts to reframe the day’s events.
The White House has adopted a markedly different posture. Press secretary Abigail Jackson said President Trump is focused on issues voters prioritized in the 2024 election, including border security, economic growth, crime reduction, and restoring public trust in government institutions, rather than revisiting what the administration views as politicized narratives from the past.
Since returning to office, Trump has moved quickly to unwind the government’s January 6-related prosecutions. On his first day, he issued pardons and commutations to roughly 1,500 individuals charged in connection with the Capitol breach, calling the cases a “grave national injustice.” His Justice Department later dropped federal charges tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including those brought by special counsel Jack Smith, who had argued that the riot would not have occurred without Trump’s actions.
House Republicans have also launched a new inquiry led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, focusing on security failures before and during January 6 and seeking records they say were withheld or ignored by the Democrat-led select committee.
Some developments related to January 6 have crossed party lines. Federal prosecutors recently arrested Brian J. Cole Jr., accused of planting pipe bombs near both Democratic and Republican party headquarters in Washington on the day of the riot. Authorities said he targeted both parties out of frustration with the 2020 election.
Five years later, the national debate over January 6 has shifted away from courtrooms and congressional panels and toward a broader fight over historical interpretation. While Democrats continue to frame the event as a defining threat to democracy, the Trump administration and its allies argue the episode has been used to justify political retaliation.
