It Was an Attempted Coup: The Cline Center’s Coup d’État Project Categorizes the January 6, 2021, Assault on the U.S. Capitol

Since its initial public release in 2013, the Cline Center’s Coup d’État Project has aimed to document every coup, attempted coup, and coup conspiracy anywhere in the world since 1945. It is the largest global registry of these destabilizing events. Using the Cline Center’s Coup d’État Project definitions, the storming of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, was an attempted coup d’état: an organized, illegal attempt to intervene in the presidential transition by displacing the power of the Congress to certify the election. In terms of the type of coup attempt, the complex nature of this event leads it to be categorized as both an attempted auto-coup and an attempted dissident coup, reflecting the distinctive activities of different actors involved in the event.