WASHINGTON — The Biden presidency hangs not upon the House, but two Democratic senators, skunks at the political garden party. As skies darken, the Jan. 6 Capitol mob comes closer. These ominous signs are related.

I heard shrieks and howls while in the House chamber. It was an armed, bloodthirsty bunch. Footsteps and broken glass on pristine marble marked their trail.

I love history, but not witnessing that black day’s descent. And former President Donald Trump’s sedition is not done.

His mob is not history. The worst loser of all time will not leave us in peace. We’re wrong to let Trump roam the land freely (when under investigation) and incite Iowans.

One national security expert, Fiona Hill, called Jan. 6 a “dress rehearsal.” Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, made the same point, knowing the mind of the president he served.

Chilling when you think the Capitol’s only other attack was when British soldiers sacked it in 1814, a legitimate act of war.

The wheels of Justice turn slowly. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s department has made less than 700 arrests. The crowd that day outnumbered Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Light sentences suggested by prosecutors troubled some judges.

Trump appealed to his Justice Department nine times to undo his lost election.

Nobody could make up the ninth time. Meeting with top government lawyers, including one who defended him at an impeachment trial, Trump hit a wall when they threatened to resign.

Note the date was Jan. 3, 2021. Trump had one last card to play. Three days later came a cunning, coordinated plot to storm the Capitol while Congress was ratifying the Electoral College win for President Joe Biden. Jan. 6 is named in the Constitution.

The House and Senate were captive in the Capitol.

What a perfect setup for tens of thousands who descended on our town from all points, as far away as California and Texas. They were not tourists. They did not come at a moment’s notice. One brought bear spray.

The House Select Committee on Jan. 6 is at work issuing subpoenas — one to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows — and piecing the truth together. The FBI was late to the game again.

This much is clear: The conspiracy took weeks, even months, to organize. The mob knew which Capitol doors to break down. They scaled the walls. They must have cased the joint, because they knew where to go.

The mob missed the Senate by moments. Vice President Mike Pence, presiding over the count, escaped a mass lynching. As bad as it was, it could have been a murderous bloodbath. Some in the House chamber fled down a secret staircase.

Bearded faces poked through beautiful broken glass doors during a gun standoff. I covered Baltimore for years and never heard shots fired in anger.

The Capitol Police were helped by 800 members of the Metropolitan Police, in hand-to-hand combat. It’s not pretty, what the white mob called officers of color.

Trump is not done with those of us who hold democracy dear, fond of a peaceful transfer of power.

He learned from his sordid life that if he keeps saying something over and over in his ferocious way, that he can fool some of the people all of the time.

From Queens real estate to depraved Roman Empire days in the White House, that’s what he lives on, a banquet of lies and Big Macs.

Trump makes angry people believe his junk.

To this day, his party feeds at the banquet of lies, even old Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley. The media indulges his House lackeys, asking if they believe Biden won the election. How insane.

Democracy won, but not by much. We wept at the end of the siege.

2021 isn’t done with us yet. Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are the lone Democrats hurting Biden every day they delay on his legislative agenda.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., says it’s “not fair” for a few in a 50-member caucus to thwart a major bill — Build Back Better, with improvements for climate change, Medicare and child care.

To hold Trump at bay, Biden needs sunlight, not skunks, at his garden party.

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Jamie Stiehm may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To read her weekly column and find out more about Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.