Such adaptations could make the January 6 extremist movement even more insidious; it’s easy to spot insurrectionists when they’re taking the Capitol by force, but harder, perhaps, when they’re entering with a lawmaker ID badge. Congress is already home to something of an insurrectionist caucus, with figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, and Lauren Boebert—three of the 139 House members who tried overturning the election—using their national platform to spread conspiracy theories, erode faith in the democratic process, and threaten political opponents. The party has largely swallowed Trump’s election lies, with 71% of Republicans telling pollsters that the ex-president was the rightful winner of the 2020 election. In the same Ipsos/ABC News poll, 52% of Republicans said the Capitol rioters were actually “protecting democracy,” a warped version of the events of January 6 that fits with what CNN's Donie O'Sullivan recently heard from Trump supporters.
As the Atlantic Council report makes clear, extremist groups involved in the January 6 attack are not only working at the national level: They’re getting involved in local politics, starting nonprofits and PACs, and hosting conferences featuring elected officials like Gosar. In some ways, this reflects the ways in which the outburst of violence last year scattered the coalition of far-right movements that came together to attack Congress. But it may also represent the maturation of those movements into a more effective political force.
“We figured out that going to the Capitol and working that particular piece doesn’t do anything, because these legislators have already made up their mind,” Denise Aguilar, who spoke at a right-wing event in Washington D.C. on January 6, told NBC News last month outside a California school board meeting she was attending to protest vaccine mandates. “It’s all about local legislation, your school districts, your city council board of supervisors…These people live in our community. They work here, and they’re going to have to face us every single day.”
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