[arp242]

There were more or less similar attacks on some state capitols in the weeks before this, too. Besides, as you mention if your rhetoric is that "Democrats are stealing the election and want to destroy this country" then ... what do you expect people to do? Sit peacefully at home going "oh shucks, that's too bad, what else is on TV?" Never mind that rhetoric on various social media posting has quite literally been saying they will do something like this for years. I used to keep a list of these kind of things; but I got bored of it and I'm not sure if I still have it (but there are various reddit subs that are a good start).

Was I shocked? Yeah, but not because it was surprising. While the specific date and details of the incident are always hard to predict, even a casual observer could see that something like this was bound to happen from miles away. In some ways I'm relieved because I expected it to be far more deadly (which may still happen).

Can we prove that Trump knew what he was inciting this in a court? Probably not. I'm not sure if it really matters as such, depending on what happens with Trump in the coming weeks/months/years.