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The research asks a set of the following questions: (1) To what extent and how offline speech of Trump is similar to online discourse? And (2) what salient topics were discussed in the online-offline corpora? Integration of a computational method with qualitative thematic analysis was used to understand the ways in which offline influences affect online political engagement. This research is intended to explore the link between offline political language and online extra-representational participation using Twitter within the framework of the insurrection. Moreover, President Trump publicly urged Vice President Mike Pence and Republican lawmakers not to certify the electoral ballots necessary to legally recognize Joe Biden's election victory.īased on this context, this current research examines online political discussions that connect the January 6 insurrection to Donald Trump's offline rhetoric. Given the overwhelming media coverage, we know that the mass of people was there in support of then-president Donald Trump, who previously made several incendiary speeches claiming the election was stolen. Reflecting on the incident, questions remain regarding the mechanisms that motivated so many people to engage in political violence at the seat of the U.S. Approximately ninety-five percent of those involved are “one-off cases” ( Hosenball and Lynch, 2021), which refers to individuals with no prior history of involvement in similar activity. Of those arrested, over 300 individuals are alleged to have been involved in violent crimes on Capitol grounds, with more than 200 being accused of assaulting police officers ( Hymes et al., 2021) offenses range from weapons possession to kidnapping and murder. As law enforcement, politicians, and the media tried to make sense of the attack, images of the event show people displaying assorted insignias affiliated with far-right groups, including those of militias and conspiracy groups.Īs of December 2021, more than 700 people from at least forty-four states were arrested for the January 6 insurrection ( DOJ, 2021) these individuals vary in age group, gender, and originate from very different geographic communities. The breach of the Capitol Building was a moment that revealed deep political divisions and public distrust in democratic institutions and exposed the willingness of some Americans to change the political system through violence forcefully. Capitol-smashing windows, breaking down doors, and sending lawmakers running for their lives-the group intended to stop the count of electoral votes cast in the 2020 U.S. On January 6, 2021, the world watched as rioters stormed the U.S. This research illuminates this phenomenon and offers policy implications for the role of online messaging as a tool of political mobilization. We find that links between online extra-representational participation and offline political speech exist. Using a mixed-methods approach of quantitative and qualitative thematic analyses, the study combines offline speech information with Twitter data during key speech addresses leading up to the date of the insurrection exploring the link between Trump's offline speeches and QAnon's hashtags across a 3-day timeframe. This research explores the link between offline political speech and online extra-representational participation by examining Twitter within the context of the January 6 insurrection. As a result, online groups such as QAnon engaged in extra political participation beyond the traditional platforms. Uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing societal tensions, and a fragile economy increased societal polarization, exacerbated by the outgoing president's offline rhetoric. The transfer of power stemming from the 2020 presidential election occurred during an unprecedented period in United States history. 2School of Computing and Information Systems, Singapore Management University, Singapore, Singapore.1School of Criminology and Justice Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, United States.Colautti 1, Jisun An 2 and Haewoon Kwak 2 Claire Seungeun Lee 1 *, Juan Merizalde 1, John D.