[username90]

A coup can't succeed without support from the military, the police or a majority of the population. A few hundred badly organized crazy people can't perform a coup, they can however perform acts of terrorism which is what they did. Crazy people sometimes kills high level politicians, there are many cases like that in history, doesn't mean it was a coup or it was even near succeeding.

[nabla9]

Unsuccessful or incompetent coup attempt is still a coup.

[asynchronous13]

I guess I'll be pedantic for a moment. A coup, by definition, is a seizure of power from government. If they are not successful at seizing power, then it was not a coup.

[Let_Laugh_Rule]

It was an attempted coup.

[mechEpleb]

If I show up at the capitol building alone and demand to be put in charge, is that also a coup attempt? Obviously where you draw the line is subjective, but this event never had anything close to the requisite backing to become an actual coup, so calling it that feels a bit disingenuous to me. What it was is a riot and and an insurrection, but not a coup.

[vorpalhex]

It's an insurrection (non-government/military attacking government property/people). A coup would be if it was another wing of the government or the military doing the attacking.

[Let_Laugh_Rule]

Does the POTUS count as a wing of the government? The POTUS and some members of congress? It was not a coup, but I'd call it an attempted coup.

[diveanon]

The police let the terrorists in and DC authorities were denied National Guard resources by Military authorities.

There are several documented terrorists who are active duty police officers and the terrorist who was killed was an Air Force officer.

Seems like this coup attempt had plenty of support from the Military and Police.