Political contact sheet, 2024
After years of covering wars and human rights violations, I felt like what we rarely see are how all these crises begin. They never start with an active warfare, but with words and actions of politicians. Its political figures that employs subverted ideologies to recruit foot soldiers and then unleash violence.
With his series Political Year Zero, Louie Palu has been investigating for five years a sequence of political events all connected as part of an ongoing attempt to subvert and overthrow the international democratic order.
Between September 2019 (Impeachment) and February 2024 (lobbying Congress to block US aid to Ukraine-, the United States of America has seen two administrations, rising racial tensions, a global pandemic threatening more than just its healthcare system but society as a whole, an attempted coup d’état, and, always in the background, rising tensions with Russia and, finally, the return of war on the old continent.
Set in Washington DC, the political center of the United States, Louie Palu chronicles the most important American political events of the last five years and puts their political fallout into perspective: from the first impeachment proceedings of former US President Donald Trump to the 2020 elections giving victory to Joe Biden (contested by Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 in an extremely violent move).
Senators and representatives, escorted by their bodyguards, armies of communicators, lawyers and parliamentary aides, as well as journalists, political columnists, cameramen and photographers, pass through its doors. A cornerstone of established power, it can also become the site of popular demands and demonstrations. Finaly, the American capital is transformed into a backdrop for political stagings, participating in the manufacture of information and the creation of a public opinion.
“Impeachment”
On September 2019, an “Impeachment” procedure against US President Donald Trump is launched for attempting to obtain information in order to harm Joe Biden, his main rival in the upcoming presidential elections. This impeachment attempt is based on a transatlantic telephone conversation between the Oval Office and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Contact Sheet : photographers
Pandemic
As COVID-19 takes hold from the start of 2020, US President Donald Trump is being heavily criticised for his handling of the pandemic, undermining scientists and spreading conspiracy theories instead of encouraging the wearing of masks and social distancing.
Protests
The murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, when he was arrested by Minneapolis police on 25 May 2020, led to demonstrations in support of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement bringing together between 15 and 26 million people across the country.
Elections
In the run-up to the presidential election, current President Donald Trump suggested in speeches and on social media that the polls would be rigged. In the election on 3 November 2020, Joe Biden won 51.3% of the popular vote to Trump’s 46.9%. The outgoing president refused to accept the results, claiming the election was stolen and alleging voter fraud, although no evidence of his claims has been found by officials ranging from the Department of Justice to the US Supreme Court. On 14 December, the Electoral College confirmed Biden’s election by 306 votes to 232.
US Capitol Attack
Trump’s supporters are spreading the idea that the joint session of Congress to certify the election (normally a formality), scheduled for 6 January 2021, is the last chance to keep Trump in power. At noon on 6 January, Trump addressed a rally near the White House, continuing to claim that the election had been stolen and urging his supporters to march to the Capitol. Protesters evaded police on the west steps of the Capitol while the certification process was underway, and entered the building. The session was adjourned and it took five hours for the police to restore order. One rioter was killed by the police, another died of a heart attack, another of a stroke and another of an accidental overdose. A policeman also died later of a stroke. A few days later, impeachment proceedings against Trump were launched for the second time for inciting insurrection, before he was acquitted again by the Senate.
Contact Sheet : barricades
Reconstruction
“Overthrow”
In October 2023, it was the impeachment of Kevin McCarthy, Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, that interested the photographer, following the agreement negotiated with the Democrats to avoid bankruptcy but strongly criticised by extremist Republicans led by Congressman Matt Gaetz.
The slow decay of the Grand Old Party continues inexorably in February 2024 with the announced resignation of the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, who voted ‘not guilty’ in Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021.
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