January 4, 2021

Their first week back in Washington, lawmakers are grappling with an unprecedented mix of dangers on the job: intense pro-Trump rallies that authorities fear could turn violent and a deadly pandemic that has already claimed one of their own.

And that doesn’t include what many in both parties consider an entirely different threat to American democracy — a historic effort by a growing band of Republicans to overturn Joe Biden’s presidential victory on the floors of Congress.

Congressional and D.C. officials are bracing for clashes in the streets on Wednesday, when dozens of GOP lawmakers will launch that doomed attempt to challenge the election results. President Donald Trump has encouraged his hardcore supporters — who have framed Jan. 6 as a battle akin to the American Revolution and encouraged each other to bring firearms — to march in the “wild” protests in hopes of pressuring Congress to keep him in power.

Read more: