Rhode Island remembers the January 6 Insurrection with candlelight vigil at the State House

As I watched it unfold before my eyes, I thought, “This is America? This can’t be happening.” And yet there it was, happening for all of the world to see...

Yesterday, on the fifth anniversary of the January 6 Insurrection, hundreds gathered at the Rhode Island State House to hold a candlelight vigil. Speakers reflected on that day, expressing hope for a better future. Indivisible Rhode Island organized the event, which coincided with the first day of a new session of the Rhode Island General Assembly.

Here’s the video:

Lev Poplow, Lead Organizer, Indivisible Rhode Island:

On a cold January night, looking out over a sea of faces shows how significant this date has become in American history. Five years ago, today, everything changed. Our illusions of what America was were shattered as we watched, horrified, thousands of our fellow citizens descend on the Capitol to rise in insurrection because they believed a lie - that they had to stop the steal. A lie that had been fed to them by a man who was supposed to support and defend the Constitution. But that day conclusively showed all of us that he’s nothing but a seditious traitor who doesn’t give a damn about the Constitution. He only cares about law and order inasmuch as it serves his own need for power, money, and adulation.

That day was a nightmare. I couldn’t believe it. As I watched it unfold before my eyes, I thought, “This is America? This can’t be happening.” And yet there it was, happening for all of the world to see. Our country had truly gone insane. Four years later, our current president pardoned over 1500 people who had been convicted of crimes that day. For the hundreds assaulted and the millions who watched images of that assault, the pardons do not erase the shame and the tragedy of that day, and just three days ago, among every other horrific thing that has happened since January 20, he launched an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation.

But tonight, as the Rhode Island General Assembly gavels in its first day of a fresh new legislative season, we gather together to recognize this solemn day by candlelight in a spirit of community. We’re not coming together to celebrate this occasion, but to honor the truth of what happened. On January 6, 2021, our nation watched as a violent mob stormed the Capitol, trying to overturn a free and fair election. People were injured. Lives were lost. Democratic norms, which many of us took for granted, were shaken to their core.

For some, these images now feel like a distant memory. For others, especially those who work in public service, journalism, advocacy, and policy, that day fundamentally altered how safe and stable our democracy felt. This candlelight vigil is first and foremost about those who were impacted that day. Capitol staff, law enforcement officers, elected officials, their families, and everyday Americans who realized, perhaps for the first time, how fragile our democratic system can be when hateful rhetoric is allowed to metastasize into violence.

This vigil is also about Rhode Island, for today is not just an anniversary. It is also the first day of a new legislative session at the State House behind us. The irony of that convergence is not lost on us. However providential that is, we choose to let it serve as a reminder that democracy is not some abstract ideal that lives in Washington, D.C. It lives here in our small state. It dwells in our State House, city halls, town councils, and school committees. It lingers in the daily work of governing and in our responsibility as citizens to remain engaged, informed, and vigilant.

Indivisible Rhode Island believes that remembrance is not passive, and as such, this candlelight vigil is an action. It’s a form of accountability and responsibility, for when we forget what happened or normalize political violence, we weaken the guardrails that protect our pluralistic democracy. A candlelight vigil is a deliberate act of reflection instead of chaos and community instead of fear.

Some may ask why we look back when there is so much work ahead. Our answer is simple: We cannot move forward responsibly without reflecting on what has led to this moment. Democracies do not fail at once. They erode in pivotal moments when truth becomes negotiable and participation optional.

As our lawmakers return to the State House to debate policies that will shape the lives and wellbeing of Rhode Islanders, from housing and healthcare to education and climate resilience. We want to ground that work in a shared commitment to Democratic principles, respect for humanity, civic disagreement without dehumanization, and equal rights for all.

Rhode Island has a long history of civic engagement and dissent rooted in care for the common good. Gathering by candlelight tonight is our way of reaffirming that legacy. It is an invitation to lawmakers and neighbors alike to begin this legislative session with humility, inclusivity, and resolve. Democracy is not self-sustaining. It asks something of each of us. It calls us to action and challenges us to pursue a more perfect society.

So, as we step into 2026, we are filled with resolve and the strength of our collective power. Over the past year, Rhode Islanders have shown up for one another, from feeding our neighbors facing hardship to organizing some of the largest public actions in our state’s history: your voices, your presence, and your courage matter.

Individual Rhode Island is dedicated to defending democracy, holding power accountable, and building a future that works for all of us. We organize, we educate, we resist, and we build community: action by action and day by day. In 2026, we commit to standing, indivisible, against threats to our rights and freedom; to supporting leaders who truly represent everyday people; to mobilizing our communities to protect democracy in every corner of the state; and to showing up for justice, equality, and a shared prosperity. We believe in the power of collective action and the promise of a democracy that works for everyone. Let’s make 2026 a year of courage, compassion, and real progress, and let’s do it together. You are the light. We are the light.

Representative Jennifer Stewart (Democrat, District 59, Pawtucket)

A vigil, as you heard, suggests seriousness, even mourning, words befitting any observations about January 6 and the daily assaults from both Trump Administrations, especially during the last year. I want to use my time tonight to talk about a cousin of the word “vigil,” and that is “vigilance.” Any success we’ve had or will have depends on our vigilance. Democracy, rule of law, and community, as Lev said, never just happen. They require that we be awake, alert, and watchful. That’s why the Trump years feel so exhausting, right? Because we can’t sleep. The offenses can happen at any time and attack the most mundane procedures.

We saw that on January 6, when the mobs sought to disrupt the certification of the electoral votes. Immigration check-ins and hearings used to be routine and uneventful. Now they bring the terror of possible deportation and arrest. Permits from and contracts with the U.S. federal government were once dependable. Now, as the irrational stop-work order for Revolution Wind shows, we can’t take those things for granted. Everything requires constant vigilance now.

We must also remember that the state level requires vigilance, too. Otherwise, our blue state can look pretty red. And because of your vigilance and your willingness to step into the struggle, better things have happened here in Rhode Island. Thank you for organizing, for marching, demonstrating, talking to neighbors, donating to those in need, and warning our immigrant neighbors that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is nearby. We have no other choice but to remain awake, alert, and watchful, and in keeping with our state motto, hopeful.

I know you will be just as vigilant here, demanding that this General Assembly do everything it can to ensure our state government works for us. That means, for example, everyone has affordable, stable, quality housing.

That means having a fully funded and expanded RIPTA (Rhode Island Public Transit Authority) so we can get where we need to go when we need to be there while mitigating the climate crisis.

That means getting the for-profit insurance companies out of the business of denying us the healthcare that our doctors prescribe.

That means a state government that has the wisdom and the courage to make the wealthiest finally pay their fair share. That’s right. We need to tax the rich.

With your vigilance, we can win policies that will materially benefit all of us in Rhode Island and throughout the U.S. There is no alternative, because the only way to defeat fascism is with a democracy that delivers economic fairness and opportunity for everyday people, along with the rule of law.

In closing, I want to end with a quotation from Congressman Bennie Thompson, who led the Congressional Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack. He wrote the following in the forward to that report: “We can never surrender to democracy’s enemies. We can never allow America to be defined by forces of division and hatred. We can never go backward in the progress that we have made through the sacrifice and dedication of true patriots. We can never and will never relent in our pursuit of a more perfect union with liberty and justice for all Americans.”

Thank you so much for indulging me, and I hope 2026 will be the year that we all deserve, and the successful one too.

Justin Boyan, cofounder of Climate Action Rhode Island (CARI)

Nine years ago, during Trump I, I co-founded a group called Climate Action Rhode Island. Climate change is a reality we humans are having a hard time facing. There is no big technological barrier preventing us from stopping climate change. We have cheap, abundant, local, pollution-free energy available right now in the form of solar and wind energy. What’s getting in the way is greed, and what powers that greed is lies.

Now, Hitler - hate to bring this guy up, but - Adolf Hitler was last century’s champion of große Lüge, the big lie. In Mein Kampf, he wrote that most people assume that others share their own level of basic honesty. They might tell a small lie now and then, but they’d be ashamed to tell a really big lie. They find it hard to believe a public figure would do so, either. Psychologically, when a claim is grandiose enough, many people assume there must be evidence to support it, and that’s especially true if the statement supports our existing prejudices and is repeated over and over. So when Hitler lied over and over that the German army only lost World War I because of Jewish socialists and that Germany’s economic collapse was due to Jewish bankers, that reinforced widespread existing prejudice against Jews. The big lie allowed him to take power and launch his campaign of extermination and imperialism.

Now, Donald Trump doesn’t read much, but he did keep Hitler’s book of collected speeches, My New Order, by his bedside. You can look that up. He told his chief of staff, John Kelly, that Hitler did some good things. Trump wasn’t a good student at school, but when it came to absorbing the theory and practice of fascism, he was a natural.

Okay. I need your help with this next part: I’m going to quickly review a few of the things Trump said over and over during his ugly political career. And if any of these statements ring false to you, I want you to say, “That’s a big lie!”

• Barack Obama was actually a Muslim who was born in Kenya.

• Trump’s 2016 election was a landslide, and he won the popular vote.

• His 2017 swearing-in had the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration.

• Mexico paid for the border wall.

• Finland prevents wildfires by raking their forests.

• The coronavirus is very much under control in the U.S. (In February 2020.)

• The president can declassify documents just by thinking about it.

• Foreign leaders are emptying insane asylums to send prisoners and terrorists to America as migrants.

• Haitian immigrants are ... I can’t even say this. No. Skipping it.

• Everyone wanted Roe v. Wade to be overturned.

• The Jeffrey Epstein case is a hoax made up by Democrats.

• The 2020 election was rigged, and Trump’s rightful victory was stolen. We know where that one led, five years ago tonight.

And one more, just with potentially even more serious and irreversible consequences:

• It’s safer and cheaper to keep using gas and oil to power our economy since climate change is a hoax invented by China.

Trump’s cabinet is stocked with oil industry billionaires who deny the science of climate change:

• His energy secretary, a fracking CEO, says there is no climate crisis.

• His EPA Secretary says climate change is a religion.

• His interior secretary says clean energy is environmentally damaging, even as he opens millions of acres to drilling.

• His budget director, the guy who wrote Project 2025, has illegally defunded our nation’s top labs that monitor climate change. If we don’t even monitor it, then I guess that makes it easier to tell more lies about it in the future.

And Trump’s biggest climate lies, lately, have been about wind energy. He didn’t want wind messing with the view from his golf course in Scotland, so he sued to stop it. He lost—those turbines now power 70% of Aberdeen.

During his campaign, Trump said windmills were making whales go crazy, that the noise from windmills causes cancer, and that the areas under wind turbines are bird cemeteries. (If you’ve ever gone for a walk at Fields Point, where there are some big, impressive wind turbines, I invite you to take a look under the turbines. It’s very pretty. There are no dead birds there.) It’s just nonsense.

Plenty of Americans are ready to believe the big lie about climate change. If you rely on gas for your car or your heat, being lied to that it is safer or cheaper to keep doing so may feel comforting. If you are a millionaire with a beachfront summer home and you don’t like the way windmills look, being told that the windmills are dangerous to whales may make your opposition feel more principled and less selfish - but it’s a lie.

In Rhode Island, we’ve got Green Oceans. That’s a group led by coastal millionaires and fossil fuel industry lawyers, and they exist solely to amplify lies about wind energy.

On December 22, Trump told a big lie, claiming that offshore wind poses national security concerns. The evidence for that is classified. All offshore wind projects are now halted on the East Coast. This doesn’t just delay our clean energy transition. It also put thousands of Rhode Island workers out of work three days before Christmas.

So where do we go? What do we do from here?

Stay active. Keep coming to every Indivisible event. Join up, volunteer. Join Climate Action Rhode Island. We have a Yes to Wind team that’s trying to counter the misinformation. We have a politics team that supports good legislation here in Rhode Island and good candidates for election, many of whom you’ll hear from tonight. Thank our local [federal] delegation, insofar as they are standing firm against Trump’s lies and in support of clean energy. Stay grounded in reality.

And finally, I’ll end with a little bit of optimism: The United States is a total outlier on this particular lie. In the rest of the world, renewable energy is growing by leaps and bounds. In China, they’re adding solar power at a rate equivalent to three coal plants’ worth of power every day. Every single day. In Australia, they’ve built so much solar power that they’ve just announced electricity will be free for everyone from 12 to 3 pm every day.

If we can get the oil industry’s greed and lies out of the way, we can have a clean, abundant, affordable, and sustainable future - and retain our democracy. Thank you very much, keep on resisting.

Aaron Regunberg, director of Public Citizen’s Climate Accountability Project at Public Citizen:

It’s nice to be together with you on a somber day. It feels surreal to me to reflect on January 6 from our vantage point now in 2026. There was that burst of fascist violence that seemed so uniquely terrible in 2021, and here we are today. It genuinely feels like we’ve had at least one January 6 of some sort every day for the last year since the inauguration, almost 365 days of equally potent violence, equally blatant undermining of our Democratic values, and equally dangerous efforts by Trump to emulate his fascist role models. Of course, that emulation was ratcheted up to a whole new level this week with Trump’s brazenly illegal attack on Venezuela, followed shortly thereafter by threats against Cuba and Greenland, and who knows where else from the senior advisor on fascism, or whatever his title is, Stephen Miller.

I want to talk a bit about Trump’s foreign policy. We all know that this Venezuelan takeover is about oil, right? I mean, that’s what Trump himself has literally said, over and over again, but it’s worth being very clear that it’s not to cut prices for American consumers. I wouldn’t support the takeover even if it were, but the U.S. is already the world’s largest oil exporter, so handing Venezuela over to big oil so they can refine and export more dirty crude out of our country isn’t going to lower prices for American consumers. The only people who stand to gain anything from Trump’s imperialistic racketeering are the same players that all of his policies are designed to benefit: his billionaire buddies and the fossil fuel villains who are already poisoning our air and water and threatening our future.

Like basically everything Trump has ever done, this Venezuela takeover is a scam. It is a corrupt excuse to use your and my tax dollars to guarantee the profits of the billionaires who bankrolled Trump’s campaign. In fact, Trump just yesterday confirmed that these companies should expect that they’ll “get reimbursed by us,” us meaning you and me, while of course keeping every penny of the profits.

This is the most important thing to keep in mind regarding Trump’s foreign policy. It’s not about muscularly pursuing America’s interests. It’s about using the power and resources of our government to muscularly pursue the private interests of Trump’s oligarchic cronies. To be clear, the former is bad enough. Using one’s military to, as Stephen Miller put it, “Secure our interests unapologetically in our hemisphere” - that’s like literally a description of the foreign policy of Mussolini and Hitler - but Trump isn’t even trying to do something as broad-based as that.

The only good news here is that there’s real political vulnerability to this foreign policy scam. Nobody likes getting ripped off, and voters don’t want their tax dollars to finance the exploitation of other countries for the benefit of wealthy elites. But to take advantage of that vulnerability, Democrats need to actually talk about it. And I don’t think all Democrats have gotten that memo. We’ve heard a lot of responses that focus on castigating Maduro, which isn’t very relevant, given that his regime is still entirely in place and that this action is being pursued through a largely procedural process without informing Congress. That’s not the headline here. Democrats need to be crystal clear that Trump’s interventionism is a scam designed to cloak the greed of a small number of billionaires in the mantle of patriotic nationalism so that you and I can ensure their profits.

Trump is putting up our treasure and, in the future, perhaps our blood, to make the richest people in the world even richer - all while he continues to jack up our healthcare rates and cut programs for working people. It’s evil, it’s toxic, and it’s our job to make sure that Democrats are making sure that the American people understand that.

Now, I’ve spoken longer than I should on this foreign policy stuff, so I want to end quickly by going back to this fascism question.

I recently took my two sons to visit the FDR Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York, because I’m that kind of nerd. I was struck by the good fortune we had in that moment, in 1932, when fascism was rising abroad and in the U.S. because of the Great Depression and the mass disillusionment with our broken institutions, when things could have easily gone another way. We had leadership in that moment that was able to create a new political framework, the New Deal, that could channel the frustrations of so many into good instead of evil.

Over the last decade, we have faced very similar challenges, and we haven’t had the same good fortune of having the right leaders in the Democratic Party who are willing to meet the moment. I say this because it underlines the importance of all of us in this moment. I believe that history often comes down to little details. I’m reminded of that every time a well-meaning person says to me, “Have you ever thought about how, if a thousand votes went differently in 2018, you’d be our governor?” (Which, for future reference, I can assure you, I have thought about.)

But the point is: History is highly contingent and often turns on small details. Not always; sometimes there are long periods when things are running smoothly, and it’s really hard to change the course of events. But there are other times when everything is up for grabs. We are living in one of those times. What that means is that you, every one of you, should take yourselves seriously.

You should have the hubris to think that a campaign that you help run, an organizing effort that you play a role in, could be determinative of our path forward. We’ve had mass institutional failures in the Democratic Party. We have all seen this slow-motion train wreck where, again and again, nobody in power does the obvious thing that needs to be done. What that means is that it is up to us. It is up to everyday people like us to pick up the pieces and right the ship. So, as you are thinking about where to put your time and energy over the next three years, you should understand that what you do at a historical juncture like this, when so much is up for grabs, can have real consequences and put us on track towards a better world.

Again, take yourself seriously. If you’re in an organization, Indivisible, or any other, take that group seriously because nobody is waiting in the wings to save us. What we can achieve is essentially the full extent of what will be achieved, so let’s take ourselves seriously and do everything we can to stop this fascist threat in its tracks. I’m really proud to be here with all of you.

Providence City Councilmember Sue Anderbois:

Five years ago, we were all watching in horror. It was one of those moments that we will all remember, the kind we will carry with us for the rest of our lives. I’ll share that I was working from home and on a conference call with about 10 people, and suddenly someone said, “Hey, wait, turn on the TV. I think the U.S. Capitol is under attack.”

None of us believed them until we turned on the news. Then I spent the rest of the day glued to my television, glued to my phone, as I imagine many of you did, watching in horror as Americans attacked our Capitol, carrying enemy flags like the Confederate flag into our house, into the U.S. Capitol. They attacked the Capitol Police. They murdered Capitol police members. They hunted down members of Congress as well as Vice President Mike Pence. They were trampling the building, and they were trampling our norms and trying to trample our democracy. I will never forget the images of that day.

On that day, like for many of us, I feel like something broke open inside of me. I was feeling a mix of anger and terror, sadness and helplessness that I don’t often feel. I turned to my daily mantra, which I’m going to ask you to think about. “What are you going to do about it?”

I sat with that for quite some time. What are we going to do about it, friends? And friends, a few months later, I launched a campaign to run for the Providence City Council. While I had long been involved in policy, government, and advocacy - I’ve lobbied here before - I had never imagined that I would get directly in politics or run for office. That was not part of my plan. But now I’m part of a City Council that is the most diverse and representative in our city’s history. We have ages from Gen Z to Boomer. We’re majority minority and majority women. We’re dedicated not only to progressive policy but to our community, to listening, to transparency, and to real servant leadership.

When I was asked to reflect on where we are and where we go from here, I see two next steps: We have to fight back with everything we have, and we have to build something new together: something beautiful.

And we are. When I look around, I see hundreds of folks here tonight, out in the cold, building something together. I’ve seen folks in my neighborhood starting new organizations, parents’ groups meeting on weekends, and others creating new organizations to support our parks. I see folks like you attending rallies, not just here in the cold, but relentlessly throughout the last year, showing up day after day on the streets, at the State House, and City Hall. I’m seeing folks protect our neighbors from ICE. We’re sending out alerts when we see people on the street trying to kidnap our neighbors. We are taking care of each other.

Friends, I’m even seeing it in the small ways. I’m seeing neighbors smile at each other for the first time. I’m seeing my neighbors introduce themselves to each other. They’re sharing baby clothes, resources, and things you wouldn’t even imagine. That’s part of how we fight back. It’s both the progressive policies we are passing at City Hall and the ones I hope our friends here at the State House will pass, but it’s also in the tightly-knit fabric of our neighborhoods that protect and care for each other.

When I think about where we are today and where we’re going, friends, I’m actually hopeful. It’s the kind of hope that knows we have real work to do, the kind of hope that shows up in the cold on a Tuesday night with hundreds of our friends here at the State House. It’s the kind of hope that fuels unlikely politicians to run for office, win, and secure lasting policy change for our communities.

I’m looking out at all of you. I’m expecting some of you to be part of that as well. Who are the unlikely politicians here who haven’t run before and might in 2026?

Friends, I hope you share this spirit of hopefulness and continue to fight and build something better. As we do, I want to remind you of something important: The insurrectionists did not win. They broke some things. They caused some real harm, but they did not win. And 150 years ago, we had a civil war in this country fueled by similar hate. You know what? They didn’t fucking win either.

Hate wasn’t successful then, and it won’t be successful now if we keep showing up at the State House, at City Hall, and for each other in our communities, and at vigils like this.

There’s a saying that misery loves company, but you know what? So does love and so does joy. And love and joy throw much better parties. They’re where we want to be. I’m hopeful because we show up with love and joy, we will win back our democracy and build something even better together.

I look forward to showing up with you all going forward.

Reverend Jeremy Langill, Executive Minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches:

There has long been tension between church and state regarding the relationship between secularism and religious practice. While many of our founding thinkers were people of faith, creating a Christian nation was not on the agenda. Philosophical concerns about the separation of powers and the authority of the sovereign (informed by our long history of living under various monarchs) were central to the earliest discussions about establishing this nation.

One of the images burned into my memory from January 6 was a flag that said, “Jesus is my savior. Trump is my president.” This is akin to another bumper sticker that I see occasionally in Rhode Island that says, “God, guns, and country.”

Now, I don’t understand what version of the Bible some of these folks are reading, but I definitely understand the subtext. Their argument is simple: God grants the sovereign the authority to do as they will to enforce the exception. (A concept, by the way, developed in the early 20th century by conservative, German legal scholar Carl Schmidt, that was used to pave the way for the Third Reich.)

Of course, serious engagement with the gospels, and here I am speaking as a Christian minister and theologian, subverts that whole line of reasoning. The story of Christian faith, seemingly forgotten amidst the din of today’s Christian Nationalists, is the story of an oppressed people. It is the story of a subversive love, a story that critiques systems of domination and seeks to dismantle the powers of the world that destroy and dehumanize. It is a story that cannot be co-opted by any political or economic scheme. It rejects the dystopian materialism of the world. It is a story that draws our attention to a justice rooted not merely in theory but in the tangible practice of love for and with one another.

It is a story that forces us to recognize that we can and must hold multiple, complex truths about the world, but that we must do so in the full embrace of our common humanity. The danger in the invocation of the divine lies not only in its misuse by those who seek control and power, but in the very reality that the divine undermines their claims to power in the first place.

Friends, 2025 was something else. And I was tempted this past Saturday, barely three days into 2026, to ask for my money back. Around us in our communities and in Washington, we are seemingly surrounded by hurt folks intent on hurting others, and our tendency the past few months has been to gather, grieve, and register our discontent - which are good things to do, but, may I suggest in the light of this new year that we begin to think about the kind of nation and people we want to become? That we begin to act in a way that rebuilds trust, strengthens the bond of our common humanity, and seeks out a love that transforms and renews?

Tonight, I’d like to close my remarks by offering us a blessing as we go out into the world to do the work, live in the house of love, and set aside the house of fear: May the divine bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships so that we may live deep within each other’s hearts. May the divine bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and the exploitation of people so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace. May the divine bless you with tears, to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain to joy, and may the divine bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can and will make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done, to bring justice, love, and kindness to all creation.