© 2025 All Rights reserved WUSF
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Our daily newsletter, delivered first thing weekdays, keeps you connected to your community with news, culture, national NPR headlines, and more.

What is the state of the far right today, two years after the Jan. 6 insurrection?

Violent rioters supporting President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol. (John Minchillo/AP)
Violent rioters supporting President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol. (John Minchillo/AP)

Two years ago Friday, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. This brutal break-in and assault left 140 police officers injured and terrorized congressional staffers hiding under tables and inside janitor closets.

We saw images of rioters hammering through windows using police protective shields. Images of officers slammed in doorways or dragged down staircases. Has all of that the raw violence served to inhibit the far-right movement or embolden it?

Here & Now‘s Celeste Headlee talks with Kathleen Belew, Northwestern University history professor and expert on far-right extremism. She is the author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America” and contributed a chapter called “Insurrection” to the new book “Summary of Myth America: Historians Take On The Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past.”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Tags
Thanks to you, WUSF is here — delivering fact-based news and stories that reflect our community.⁠ Your support powers everything we do.