How the GOP's election lies and Capitol riot narratives are part of a new 'Lost Cause' myth

Trump and his Republican backers are trying to divert attention from the deadly attack on 6 January, writes Alex Woodward

Five people lost their lives in the 6 January insurrection (REUTERS)

On 6 January, Andrew Clyde barricaded the House of Representatives chamber, where elected officials and staff were escaping, or hiding under chairs, before a mob pounded on the doors.

A photo from the day shows the Republican congressman moving towards the door with his mouth agape and a hand outstretched.

He was there, along with Republican colleagues, watching or hearing a mob of Donald Trump's supporters break into the Capitol, threaten lawmakers and staff and beat police, all in support of the former president's call to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election that he lost.

Four months later, Mr Clyde said there was "no insurrection" and calling it that is a "bald-faced lie."

He elaborated.

"Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes, taking videos and pictures," he told a House committee this month. "You know, if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit."

(CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty)

He is far from alone in severely downplaying what the world saw happen that day, as Republican members of Congress now confront how to approach investigating a riot they helped inspire.

Four months later, even the plainly obvious has been recast entirely as something defensible, or not what really happened, or is part of a politically motivated conspiracy to drag Republicans through the mud.

The current GOP's rejection of an investigation into a crime that they embraced was always inevitable. The American right, its figurehead in Mr Trump, its media, and politicians in state legislatures across the US and in Congress have been feeding from and amplifying the same culture war grievances and election fraud fantasies that have warped what is now considered discourse and primetime debate material.

Republicans remain constantly aggrieved, under attack from "cancel culture" and liberal mobs and Big Tech censorship of conservative voices and socialist lawmakers, but have now cast themselves as victims in a riot inquiry that would not have happened without their supplication to the former president and his spurious attempts to cast doubt on the results of the election.

Trump's stolen election narrative was one already in place, for years, backed by right-wing think tanks and legislators aware that if more people could vote, it probably would not be for them.

The attack on voting rights and his months-long campaign to undermine the results before a single ballot was cast embrace a long-standing American tradition of rewriting history – from the Lost Cause of the US Civil War to the fake quotes from former presidents and civil rights icons stuffing chain emails and Facebook pages to make idle arguments – in service of defending the indefensible.

His election loss and the insurrection – and Republican capitulation to the ex-president's objections to an investigation – have become a new Lost Cause, one in which steadfastly believing that overturning election results by force is part of a uniquely American patriotic tradition, and they're right. American history is full of assaults on civil rights.

US Rep Louie Gohmert supported the "Stop the Steal" campaign that reinforced the riot. He now believes that "outright propaganda and lies are being used to unleash the national security state against law-abiding US citizens, especially Trump voters."

US Rep Ralph Norman doubted that the crowd that broke into the building and walked through the halls and offices of Congress carrying Trump 2020 signs were even Trump supporters.

Republicans from Mr Trump and far-right figure Marjorie Taylor Greene to House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy have insisted Congress should instead investigate Black Lives Matter protests.

Despite their objections, the House voted 252-175 on 19 May to support a 10-member bipartisan commission to study what, exactly, the administration, lawmakers and law enforcement agencies knew before and during the attack, hoping to set the historical record straight, and likely incriminating or casting definitive blame against the dis- and misinformation campaign within the American right and its elected officials.

Thirty-five Republicans voted in favour. In Trump’s version, they are the villains.