5 years later, the fight over how Jan. 6 is remembered continues

Geoff Bennett:

In the five years since January 6, there has been a widespread fight over the story of that day.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins was inside the U.S. Capitol and witnessed the storming firsthand. She has this look at the half-decade battle over the narrative.

Lisa Desjardins:

In the crowd storming the Capitol on January 6, an unlikely character, an Idaho grandmother, has become one of the most well-known.

Pamela Hemphill, Convicted January 6 Rioter: I was hoping we'd storm the Capitol.

Lisa Desjardins:

That's the voice of Pam Hemphill. You can see her insecurity camera photos of the crowd and inside the Capitol. Prosecutors said she egged on rioters.

Pamela Hemphill:

You just come in.

Lisa Desjardins:

Just days earlier, Hemphill posted on Facebook about the rally: "The fight for America is real." In a photo, she posed with a gun and the caption: "On my way to Washington, January 6."

Now she sees all that as part of a lie.

Pamela Hemphill:

The brainwashing that happens to you, that the Democrats want to turn this into a communist nation. They would always say the same thing. Pam, don't listen to Democrats, whatever you do. They will lie to you about everything.

So you start believing all that. And I got pulled into all the propaganda.

Lisa Desjardins:

But five years out, the battle still rages about January 6, with recent comments like these from some on the right.

Eric Metaxas, Host, "The Eric Metaxas Show": Most people in America are still buying the lie that like, oh, January 6 was a terrible thing. Trump supporters did some bad stuff. No.

Michael Knowles, Conservative Commentator:

You remember what we were told about January 6, January 6, January 6, that it was an insurrection, the worst attack ever on our sacred democracy.

Lisa Desjardins:

And last January 6, Georgia Republican Congressman Mike Collins said: "Thousands of peaceful grandmothers gathered in Washington, D.C., to take a self-guided, albeit unauthorized tour of the U.S. Capitol Building."

Hemphill was that grandmother, part of the mob recording everything she saw, marching up the street, clashes with police, climbing the steps of the East Front, and walking through the halls of the Capitol.

There were a lot of people who, as we have gotten farther from January 6, have said things, including it wasn't violent, no one broke the law. What did you actually see compared to what people are saying?

Pamela Hemphill:

We know they're delusional. Of course it was violent. They all had the attitude, it's our house. We can do what we want. We own it, this arrogant, violent attitude.

Lisa Desjardins:

The video is indisputable. More than 140 police officers were seriously injured on January 6. There were brutal battles on the steps and in the center of the Capitol. Yes, some rioters followed the mob and mostly walked around. But even they, and I spoke with them, were there for an illegal takeover of the Capitol itself.

Initially, some Republicans saw the event as a reckoning.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY):

There's no question done that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.

President Donald Trump:

This is January 6.

Lisa Desjardins:

But in the years since, President Trump personally has worked to recast January 6, pardoning nearly all involved, including many who assaulted police, creating a narrative that they were patriots for believing his lie about the election.

Donald Trump:

We freed the people. They were treated so badly. The people from January 6 who were largely -- and there's always exceptions, but largely great patriots for this country.

Lisa Desjardins:

And Republican leaders now look the other way.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA):

Everybody can describe this however they want. If you could -- you would argue that those people didn't pay a heavy penalty, having been incarcerated and all of that, that's up to you. But the president's made a decision. We move forward.

Fmr. Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA):

I think it's as dangerous as any narrative we have ever had.

Lisa Desjardins:

Denver Riggleman was a Republican member of Congress until three days before the storming of the Capitol. A former Air Force intelligence officer, Riggleman later served as a staff member on the January 6 Committee and wrote a book, "The Breach," uncovering and detailing what happened.

Fmr. Rep. Denver Riggleman:

I would say 30 to 35 percent of the population who believe the election was stolen, I think they will always be not like that. And I really think, at this point, people like me, who are based in data and facts and who are an expert on January 6, we're trying to reach a smaller and smaller percentage of the population to make them see what happened that day.

It was a multipronged attack of disinformation, radicalization and violence to overturn the election.

Lisa Desjardins:

Why do you think so many Republicans support this idea that it wasn't that bad, however you want to cast that?

Fmr. Rep. Denver Riggleman:

Because they want to win elections. I mean, there's a reason they're having hearings on space aliens, rather than looking at what happened that day or acknowledging what happened that day. Plus, they're looking at fund-raising and polling in their districts. Trump is probably still over 70 to 75 percent and more of the Republican-based districts. It's simply that.

Lisa Desjardins:

Publicly, Republicans in Congress dispute this. They say their view of January 6 is about gathering facts. And, last year, House Republicans did launch a new subcommittee to investigate it. But, privately, many Republicans admit to me that January 6 is something they see as a historic threat.

Today, at the Capitol, Democratic lawmakers who were there spoke to what they saw.

Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL):

If I close my eyes, I can still hear the thundering sound of the mob and the pounding of the door of the House chamber. I can still feel the sense of sheer terror as we struggle to fit on our gas masks and crawl on our knees towards the only open door at the opposite end of the Gallery.

Lisa Desjardins:

But Republican Riggleman worries that too many are still ignoring the worst truths of January 6.

Fmr. Rep. Denver Riggleman:

What you're saying is that they want to look to the future. The issue is, is that the past is an incredible indicator of what can happen in the future. And if we're not looking at elections in 2026 and 2028 and what could happen based on these faulty belief systems or that violence can't happen again, you better damn well be looking at it.

Stephanie McCurry, Columbia University:

This is not a minor example of political violence in American history. It's the major one, I would say, after the Civil War itself. How that's going to play out over the long term, I think, is very much still being contested.

Lisa Desjardins:

Stephanie McCurry is a history professor at Colombia University. She says clashing versions of U.S. history aren't uncommon, like narratives about the Reconstruction era of the late 1800s and the actions of the Ku Klux Klan.

Stephanie McCurry:

When I think about that as a kind of cautionary moment for what we're in now, the thing I worry the most about is how I saw that Klan narrative offered as a raw, partisan position in defense of an incredibly violent, racist organization. And then I saw it emerge in film and in written scholarly history.

The Klan version became the history of Reconstruction. That narrative took hold until the civil rights movement displaced it.

Lisa Desjardins:

But McCurry sees something distinct with January 6.

Stephanie McCurry:

I think we're in a dangerous moment because we have never seen a case before, I think, where one side of the contested narrative is being propagated by the president and who has made it a loyalty test for his regime.

Lisa Desjardins:

Which brings us back to the pardons Trump issued for those who stormed the Capitol, largely in his name. Of the more than 1, 500 people whom he pardoned, Pam Hemphill rejected the offer.

Pamela Hemphill:

I would not be a part of that, no way. It would be a slap in the face of the Capitol Police, that's for sure, the rule of law. But I broke the law. You don't pardon somebody that breaks the law.

Lisa Desjardins:

She has gone from MAGA-revered to MAGA-reviled. On social media, Pam now pushes back at Proud Boy leaders who dispute January 6. Some family have disowned her, but the memory of that day and her sense of responsibility have not changed.

Pamela Hemphill:

I spent two months in prison over Trump's lies that the election had been stolen. I have been a little angry that this has even happened. Hopefully, some other people will just maybe listen to my story and say, lookit, she's right. I got to do some research and not just listen to what I'm hearing in media and on Twitter.

And it's part of my amends. It's one thing to say you're sorry for being there, but you have to do the footwork to prove it.

Lisa Desjardins:

Today, Hemphill returned to Capitol Hill, testifying alongside Winston Pingeon, a former Capitol Police officer who defended the building five years ago.

Winston Pingeon, Former U.S. Capitol Police Officer:

I was called a traitor, violently assaulted in the line of duty, punched in the face, pepper-sprayed, and thought, I'm going to die here on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Lisa Desjardins:

Hemphill addressed Pingeon directly.

Pamela Hemphill:

I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart for being part of the mob that put you and so many officers in danger.