Do you shudder every time you see videos of the U.S. Capitol engulfed in flame on Jan. 6? If you haven’t yet seen those videos, it’s because they don’t exist, though you can be sure that they will if Hollywood has any say in the matter. Why, probably as we speak some tinsel town genius is busy at work on an epic blockbuster with the working title “Insurrection Day.”
This is not to say the Capitol hasn’t come under real siege. As Smithsonian magazine reminds us, the building was burned by British forces in 1841, and a little over a century later Puerto Rican nationalists open fire on the “citadel of American democracy,” as the Democrats have come to call it.
In fact, if Hollywood wants to dramatize an actual bombing of the Senate Chamber, they may be able to find real-life footage of the attack in 1983, though they may have to make a few script adjustments since the perpetrators were affiliated with the far-left Weather Underground — and they were women!
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For now, those looking to exaggerate the severity of the riots on Jan. 6 will have to be content to tune into MSNBC and its ilk. On Wednesday the network had on regular guest Paul Rieckhoff to emphasize that domestic right-wing extremists pose the most serious risk to this country.
For those who might argue that groups like Islamic terrorists present more a deadly threats Rieckhoff came equipped, pointing out that “Osama bin Laden never took over the Capitol.” You can watch his performance here:
The main problem with Rieckhoff’s generalization is that it’s wrong. Al Qaeda’s targets on Sept. 11 have been determined. They included, most obviously, the World Trade Center (carried out by American Airlines flight 11 and United Airlines flight 175) and the Pentagon (American Airlines flight 77). But the list doesn’t stop there. United Airlines flight 93 had been slated to take out the Capitol and White House and might have succeeded had brave passengers not subdued the hijackers and diverted the plane from its intended course.
