If it had been successful it would just be called a “coup”. It’s the fact that it wasn’t successful, that they were unable to reach and steal the ballots, and were eventually expelled from the building that makes it a “failed coup attempt.”

There were organized elements in the group. The event was organized on Parler, and other sites, a week in advance. They were goaded and led by the president, his family, and loyal senators. Their aim was political, to retain power using violent undemocratic means for their leaders. They had weapons and bombs. They had enough planning to position caches of weapons and ammunition. They weren’t there to protest some new agricultural rule and just got out of hand. It was a coup attempt by any definition. It is only because it happened in America people are having trouble with that. There’d be no such trouble if this happened in Mali, or Niger, or Chad, or Albania, or any European country.

> How?

By intimidation, at a minimum, and potentially (though this wasn't acheived) by (potentially selective) destruction of the electoral vote certificates and violence against the persons of legislators (including the Vice President, who some involved have pointed to as a specific target.)

> Yes it got stalled for a few hours while everything was going down, but after folks got their selfies and pilfered swag it was done.

That's because, despite being too overwhelmed to prevent the Capitol from being taken, the security forces at the Capitol were able to execute an effective delaying and evacuation effort, getting the legislators and electoral votes to safety.

> Yes it got stalled for a few hours while everything was going down, but after folks got their selfies and pilfered swag it was done.

It wasn't “done”, as many of the insurrectionists explicitly stated the intent to return and continue violence until and unless their goals are met.

> How?

Imagine the legislators didn't escape - that a majority of them were killed. Trump and his people use this as an excuse to illegally "send the vote back to the states." Kelli Ward suggested this while the mob was in the capitol. We were not far from that scenario.