What we know about those suspected of attacking the Capitol 5:24
(CNN) -
«Trump or war.
Today.
It's that simple.
«If you don't know how to shoot: you need to learn.
NOW".
"We will raid government buildings, we will kill police officers, we will kill security guards, we will kill federal employees and agents, and we will demand a recount."
In the weeks, days and hours leading up to Wednesday's siege of the Capitol by enthusiastic supporters of President Donald Trump, the warning signs were clear: online posts by right-wing hate groups and provocateurs agitating for civil war, the deaths of top legislators and attacks on law enforcement.
LOOK: Melania and Trump's older children avoid attracting attention after one of the darkest days in the United States.
And now, as the dust settles and the country struggles to make sense of the violence that left five dead, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, experts warn that calls for violence have only intensified. before the inauguration, when President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in as commander-in-chief.
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"We see ... talk from these white supremacists, these extremists feeling emboldened right now," said Jonathan Greenblatt, executive director of the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks and counters hate.
"We fully believe that this violence may get worse before it gets better."
Supporters of President Donald Trump break into the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 in Washington.
The chaos on Wednesday, which erupted during a protest to dissuade Congress from certifying the results of Biden's unequivocal victory, showed a loss of control and a sudden severing of the bond that for four years had maintained Trump, his supporters and the leadership. Republican together at the same pace.
After the rioters passed through a barricade, attacked police officers, smashed windows and broke into the holy building that was burned down by the invading British Army in 1814, Trump made a lukewarm plea for them to go home, though he repeated the falsehood that the elections had been stolen from him.
Republican leaders that night, including Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, condemned the rioters in the strongest terms.
But it all seemed to have little effect on the radicalized right.
"Trump will be sworn in for a second term on January 20 !!" said a commenter on thedonald.win, a pro-Trump online forum, on Thursday, the day after the siege.
“We must not let the communists win.
Even if we have to burn Washington to the ground.
Tomorrow we take back Washington and we take back our country !! "
Security concerns prior to Biden's inauguration
John Scott-Railton, principal investigator for the Citizen Lab, a group at the University of Toronto that monitors cybersecurity, said he is "terribly concerned" about the inauguration.
"While the general public was appalled by what happened (Wednesday) on Capitol Hill, in certain corners of the right-wing type of conversation, what happened ... is considered a success," he told CNN.
In the days and weeks leading up to the attack on the Capitol, signs abounded that the protest could escalate into violence.
Trump supporters storm the US Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6.
Advance Democracy, Inc., an independent government watchdog, highlighted the red flags on social media.
In the six days leading up to the event, for example, there were 1,480 posts from accounts related to QAnon that referenced the event and contained terms of violence.
In Parler, according to the report, various publications made reference to the war, including statements such as "the war begins today."
Ali Alexander, a political activist who has organized pro-Trump rallies, including one of the demonstrations that converged on the Capitol lawn on Wednesday, accused the left of "trying to push us to war."
In late December, Alexander told his Periscope supporters that he and three Republican congressmen, Representatives Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona and Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, were planning something big.
MORE: As Capitol Riots Happened, Trump Tried Calling Senators to Override Elections
"It was to build momentum and pressure and then that day to change the hearts and minds of the congressmen who were not yet made up or who saw everyone outside and said, 'I can't be on the other side of that mob,'" he said. Ali, although he did not incite violence.
CNN contacted the offices of the three congressmen, but only Biggs responded, with a statement from a spokesperson denying that he has in any way worked with Alexander or any protesters.
"Congressman Biggs is not aware of having heard or met with Mr. Alexander at any time, much less of having worked with him to organize part of a planned protest," said the spokesman.
“He did not have any contact with protesters or rioters, nor did he encourage or encourage rally or protests.
He focused on his research and arguments to work within the limits of the law and set a precedent for restoring the integrity of our elections, and ensuring that all Americans, regardless of party affiliation, can once again have full confidence in our electoral systems ”.
Warnings issued ahead of the Capitol siege
Former Trump allies condemn assault on Capitol 3:02
Several organizations that monitor extremism online issued warnings beforehand.
On January 4, the ADL published a lengthy blog post detailing threats of violence related to the upcoming demonstration.
"In response to a user who wondered what happens if Congress ignores the 'evidence' that President Trump won the election, one user wrote, 'Storm the Capitol,'" reads the ADL blog post.
The publication indicates that although it was not aware of any credible threat of violence planned for January 6, “if the past is any indication, the combination of an extremist presence at rallies and the heated nature of the rhetoric suggests that the violence it's a posibility".
Also on January 4, a risk analysis by security firm G4S indicated that "current rhetoric suggests that there will be attendees with violent intent, including armed militia groups" between January 6 and the inauguration.
The analysis cited numerous posts in recent weeks advocating violence on the right-wing site thedonald.win, including one from late December that read: 'We will have to achieve a real tactical victory, such as storming and occupying Congress, to have the desired effect ”.
Another said, "Patriots who STILL, AT THIS TIME, are too cowardly to tolerate violence, are part of the problem."
Security experts said they were taken aback by the nonchalant response from law enforcement.
"The surprising part about this is why it was policed so much less aggressively," said Jonathan Wood, director of global risk analysis at London-based Control Risks.
"Many security analysts were surprised by the lack of security and the lack of a robust security response."
Authorities taken by surprise
Federal and local law enforcement officials insist they had no idea the siege would take place.
"There was no intelligence to suggest there was a violation of the United States Capitol," DC Police Chief Robert Contee said at a news conference Thursday.
Steven A. Sund, who resigned as chief of the United States Capitol Police amid criticism over the apparent lack of preparedness to deal with the violent mob, said in a statement that the department had a solid plan to address the "activities Advances of the First Amendment.
Trump supporters clash with police when they storm the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“But make no mistake, these massive riots were not First Amendment activities;
they were unbridled criminal behavior, "he said Thursday.
Regarding security at the inauguration, the Secret Service issued a statement saying that its plans for the event have been made for a long time.
"The inauguration of the president of the United States is a fundamental element of our democracy," the agency said in a statement.
"The safety and protection of all those participating in the 59th Presidential Inauguration is of the utmost importance."
MORE: Video shows the attack on a policeman by the mob that stormed the Capitol
Robert Dodge, president of corporate risk services at G4S, who issued the Jan. 4 warning, said that in the months leading up to Jan. 6, he saw "a lot of disturbing and hostile rhetoric, which in our world we call a threat indicator."
He added that the United States Capitol building appeared to lack adequate fortification.
"Did the people approaching the Capitol see an adequate level of physical barriers, psychological barriers like signs saying don't cross this line or will you be arrested?"
commented.
You saw the glass windows being smashed.
Why were some of them not reinforced?
It seems there were some serious physical security challenges that the Capitol Police had to mitigate. "
Americans swept up in misinformation
Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier on Jan.6 at the Capitol.
It is not only the marginal elements that have been carried away by the current fervor.
Mixed in with the crowd of extremists, white nationalists and high-profile conspiracy theorists on the Capitol lawn Wednesday, were other citizens who made the trip to challenge certification.
One was Texas resident and former mayoral candidate Jenny Cudd, whose campaign slogan was "Jenny for Mayor."
After criticizing what he described as electoral fraud and a stolen election, he called for the deaths of those who committed treason.
"All we need is a public hanging, and then people will start to act properly, as if it would help if we still had the firing squad for the death penalty," Cudd said.
"We will see if there will be a public hanging in our future because it is still considered a valid form of death by treason."
Cudd posted a video the night before the protests, where he spoke about how the next day was going to be a "riot."
"I don't know what you think about a revolution, but I totally agree," he said.
"Nobody really wants war, nobody wants bloodshed, but the government works for us and, sadly, they seem to have forgotten a lot, so if a revolution is what is needed, so be it."
Right-wing news network OANN posted a photo of Cudd on Twitter Wednesday afternoon showing her inside the Capitol, with a Trump flag around her as a cape.
And that night, he posted a video from his hotel, where he drank a beer and held back tears as he told his followers what had happened that day.
"It was when Pence betrayed us that we decided to storm the Capitol," he said.
On Friday, Cudd told a local television news outlet that he did not do anything illegal.
"I walked the steps quite well and then there was an open door to the Capitol," he explained.
"I personally didn't knock down anything, I didn't destroy anything."
In response to a request for comment from CNN on Friday, Cudd sent a text message with a link to a video of herself repeating a version of the statement she made to the local media, saying: “The culture of cancellation is in full force. "And that he has" received multiple death threats, along with thousands of one-star reviews "for his business.
Joel Finkelstein, director of the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University, noted that conspiracies on the web have multiplied from smaller, darker sites like 8kun frequented by QAnon followers to more mainstream sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The result, he said, is that many of the people drawn to Wednesday's protests were not extremists but ordinary Americans who did not understand that they had been lied to.
Images show the chaos of the mob inside the Capitol 3:58
"These are our neighbors, these are our neighbors and friends," he said.
«They are people we all know.
They were doing it on Facebook.
They were doing it on Twitter.
Threats to our democracy don't just come from 8chan.
And they don't just come from QAnon.
Some of the most disturbingly violent conversations on social media reflect what appears to be growing hostility toward Republican leaders from Trump supporters.
"I'm pretty sure seeing Pelosis and Mitch the Bitch swinging their bodies on a rope will draw more attention from sheep who don't normally follow or care about politics," said a commenter Wednesday on thedonald.win.
And as the police begin to take a tougher hand on right-wing extremist groups (Proud Boys leader Henry "Enrique" Tarrio was arrested by Washington police prior to the January 6 protest), the Experts note a growing antipathy for the police in these circles, which have tended to be seen as allies of men and women in uniform.
"That creates a pretty dangerous situation," said Cassie Miller, senior research analyst at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"Because not only can there be violent encounters with leftists, but the possibility of a violent confrontation with the police also increases."
CNN's Yahya Abou-Ghazala, Nelli Black, Blake Ellis, Drew Griffin, Melanie Hicken, and Benjamin Naughton contributed to this report.
Donald TrumpJoe Biden