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‘This Was Like Charlottesville on Steroids’

Security expert Erroll Southers speaks with Foreign Policy on the roots of the Capitol assault.

Palmer-James-foreign-policy-columnist20
Palmer-James-foreign-policy-columnist20
James Palmer
By , a deputy editor at Foreign Policy.
Riot police push back a crowd of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump at the Capitol
Riot police push back a crowd of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump at the Capitol
Riot police push back a crowd of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump after they stormed the Capitol building in Washington on Jan. 6. Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

The attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has shocked Americans—not just at the sight of an insurrection encouraged by a sitting president, but at the security failures that allowed domestic terrorists to reach the heart of government. To understand what went wrong, Foreign Policy’s deputy editor James Palmer spoke to Erroll Southers, a professor and leading security expert who is director of the Safe Communities Institute and Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, as well as being a former FBI agent.

James Palmer is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @BeijingPalmer

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