The few people out on the streets who were not wearing combat uniform were wearing their masks, avoiding each other, and barely raising their voice. Fear of droplets and Presidential pageantry don’t fit. It was equally strange to see the socially distanced audience on Capitol Hill, spaced out as if they were sitting school exams. I know this has become the new normal but just imagine looking back at this in a few years. You will scratch your head and wonder: what was I taking?
In the end there was no violence. The seditionists never marched on Washington. The other capitols around America were also surrounded by chicken wire and troops. None of it turned out to be necessary. Not yet. But you can see way the authorities were worried. The was the outrageous storming of Capitol Hill on the 6th January. One National Guardsman told me that he waited for six hours that day before he was deployed. In Washington DC the orders to deploy the National Guard are given by the Federal Government, ie by the President.
Much of the trial of Donald Trump in the Senate will focus on that very question: was the administration slow to act? If that can be proven, and if Republican Senators loose their fear of Trump voters -a big if- then the 45th President might indeed make history once again as the first Commander in Chief to be actually convicted by the Senate and thus barred from holding office ever again.
I suspect that deprived of Twitter and Facebook Donald Trump will get used to retirement rather quickly. The man who can barely look beyond the mirror above all craves attention and relevance. Maybe he will want and get his own show on Newsmax, the network that has outfoxed Fox. Perhaps he will take lover Rush Limbaugh’s radio slot when he finally retires. I can’t see him going back to real estate and casinos. He has had too much fun and profile in the last four years.
I assume that Trump will spend most of his time in Florida working on his handicap and getting out of sandy bunkers. His children, who are entitled creatures of New York’s upper east side will probably not be able to show their face on Fifth Avenue any time soon. They have been shunned by their friends. Polite America has turned its back on the Trumps in disgust.
But America still remains the land of second chances even for the Trumps. This nation is in a constant state of reinvention and renewal.
When George W Bush left the White House as the most unpopular President in recent history a sticker started appearing on DC cars: W. Are you missing me yet? It was a joke. Today it’s true. Bush junior, the man who started the Iraq War and who famously journeyed from Johnny Walker to Jesus Christ is now missed as a designated adult. What will it take for Trump to get missed by people other than his family and most ardent supporters?
All eyes will now be on President Biden and his team. They are clever reasonable people, schooled and even bruised by the Obama administration. But they will have deliver on their promises of unity. They have to deal with the pandemic, the economic woes, and restore America’s reputation abroad and self esteem at home without indulging in vengeance. It won’t be easy.
But if anyone can feel the pain of America and do the deals in Congress it is the 78 year old Joe Biden, the last man standing of an America that may have disappeared for good. It won’t be as exciting or infuriating. But it will be necessary and we should wish him well. What happens in Washington doesn’t tend to stay in Washington.
Matt Frei is Channel 4 News’s Europe Editor and Presenter
