(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Trump stands up for the "victim/warriors" of the January 6 Assault on Congress [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-11 As reported by The Hill. Former President Trump defended his supporters who rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and called them “warriors” at a Nevada rally on Sunday. “Those J6 warriors – they were warriors – but they were really, more than anything else, they’re victims of what happened,” Trump said at the rally, speaking to a crowd of supporters. “All they were doing is protesting a rigged election. That’s what they were doing,” Trump continued, repeating his false claims that the 2024 presidential election was rigged against him. Trump also falsely claimed police welcomed rioters into the Capitol and, Trump said, told the rioters, “Go in, go in, go in, go in.” “What a set up that was,” Trump added. “What a horrible, horrible thing, and you know, that blows two ways, that blows two ways, believe me.” Trump and his supporters have at times sought to recharacterize the Jan. 6 riots as peaceful. In reality, however, about 140 officers were injured, and five died in the days after the attack. One Capitol Police officer likened the scene to a “war zone” and recounted, before a congressional committee, slipping in other people’s blood as she engaged in “hand-to-hand combat” for hours. This is absolutely delusional. Totally. How exactly are they “Warriors” when they were supposedly “Peaceful?” How exactly are they “Victims” when they were “Warriors?” You can’t be AT WAR peacefully. You can’t be a Victim if you’re AT WAR. How exactly was it a “Setup” - when they were invited, by Trump? He sent out the initial tweet that called for a rally on January 6 when the plan had been to have the rally on January 20th during the Inaugural. He made that call. There weren’t any cops saying “Go in go in” - except for a couple exceptions they were fighting like mad to keep them out. Reposted from Dark Skies on the Horizon I’ve been over this a lot. Many times, because this BS just doesn’t go away. And please recall this is on top of Trump’s call to prosecute the members of the January 6 committee for something of the other. This is a perfect example of the kind of strategic lies that fuel the MAGA movement. They constantly claim to be the victims of others. They were just helpless bystanders that were viciously attacked by police, and also they were helplessly unable to stay outside while police urged them to enter the building. None of them would have been there on that day, at that time, if Trump hadn’t personally asked them to come. And they wouldn’t have marched to the Capitol -— without a permit — if Trump hadn’t told them to. Yes, he technically said “Peacefully” once because his scriptwriters put it in — but he also said “Fight”, “Fighting” and “Fight like hell or you won’t have a country anymore” at least 20 times. Which do you think they heard louder? Some of this argument has been revived by the release of additional videos from inside the Capitol by Speaker Mike Johnson. x x YouTube Video House Republicans have long promised to provide public access to the security footage from the January 6 Capitol riot, and on November 17, 2023, Speaker Mike Johnson announced that more than 40,000 hours of video would both be posted online and made available at the Subcommittee on Oversight’s offices in Washington, D.C. Approximately 95 percent of the 44,000 total hours recorded are being released, excluding footage that could result in retaliation against private citizens or compromise “sensitive” security information. The uploads follow the release of more than 41,000 hours of video to then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in March. It is unclear if any footage given to Carlson will be excluded from the broader public release. […] Since Johnson’s release of the footage to the public, right-wing outlets and influencers have put forward similar clips purporting to show that police stood by idly as peaceful rallygoers toured the Capitol building. Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy even echoed such claims during a Republican presidential primary debate in early December, asking, “Why am I the only person on the stage at least who can say that January 6 now does look like it was an inside job?” […] These claims rely on select footage suggesting that the protests were largely peaceful, ignoring substantial video evidence depicting high levels of violence, chaos, and illegal activity. Since January 6, 2021, more than 1,230 individuals have been charged in relation to the attack on the Capitol, of whom more than 440 have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement officers—a felony offense. According to the Department of Justice, approximately 140 police officers were assaulted on January 6. Many defendants have admitted to and been sentenced for violent activity, such as Justin Dee Adams who pleaded guilty in August 2023 to charges related to rushing a police line, striking a police officer multiple times, and throwing bottles at law enforcement. Henry Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola—five leaders of the militia organization Proud Boys—were handed particularly heavy sentences for acts of violence and conspiracy, receiving 22, 18, 17, 15, and 10 years respectively. Violent actors continue to be identified and arrested nearly three years on from the riot, including a North Carolina couple arrested on December 11 for “shoving and punching law enforcement officers,” and participating in an effort to seize an officer’s baton. Last week, Dana Bell—a 65-year-old Texas woman—was similarly arrested and charged for assaulting multiple members of the media and grabbing an officer’s baton. When viewed out of context, it is understandable how footage of police standing passively as rioters wander the Capitol lends itself to widespread “false flag” theorizing. However, proper knowledge of Capitol Police history, procedures, and training discredits claims of police complicity. “I think the way they’re being released without giving in any understanding of what’s going on is unfair,” Terrance Gainer, a former law enforcement officer who served as chief of the Capitol Police from 2002 to 2006 and sergeant at arms of the Senate from 2006 to 2014, told The Dispatch Fact Check. “If you’re not well versed in what tactics should be utilized, what use of force is supposed to be employed, what your expectations are for that, or what your own biases are, I don’t think you can draw a good conclusion.” The reaction of the police is better attributed to a lack of scenario-specific training, the implementation of de-escalatory tactics, and widespread confusion among officers. “I don’t think there was anything but everybody trying to do the best under the circumstances they had, and that did mean in some circumstances that you had to be a bystander to some of the large crowds,” Gainer remarked. “They weren’t facilitating the people who were in the building; I don’t think they were in a position to change the course of what was going on in many different circumstances.” As if a few police officers who didn’t fight or attack the rioters could possibly erase any of this. x x YouTube Video These people, Trump and Johnson are literally trying to re-write history. They’re trying to re-write facts. They’re trying to re-write what we can see with our own two eyes. And the sad part is that — for far too many people — it’s working. It works because that’s what they want to believe. They want to believe that Trump and MAGAs are the heroes of the story. Those evil nasty bad Democrats stole the election — without leaving a shred of valid evidence that could be shown in court, or in an audit, or in a recount — and therefore they were JUSTIFIED in trying to stop the election from being completed by Congress. Except they claim they didn’t really try to do that when they broke into the building. And they weren’t trying to do that when they fought with the cops. And they weren’t trying to do that when they paraded through the Senate and Ashli Babbit jumped through the broken window avoiding the barricades blocking the entrance to the House chamber. They refuse to believe the facts, just as they mostly refuse to believe that Trump has been indicted multiple times and has been found guilty. Donald Trump has been indicted on dozens of criminal felony charges, and yet a combination of approximately two-thirds of Republicans are either unsure that the ex-president was indicted on certain charges, or disagree that he was. They also say he’s not guilty. Guilt or innocence aside, given that Trump himself and the news media frequently talk about the indictments, about the cases, about the judges, the prosecutors, and the evidence, it is a stunning revelation. A Yahoo! News survey conducted by YouGov of nearly 2000 adults last week revealed the state of the nation’s knowledge about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s indictments. The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake posted a small section of the results. Participants were asked about three of Trump’s indictments. “As far as you know, which of the following things has Donald Trump been indicted for?” each question in that section started, followed by, “Taking highly classified documents from the White House and obstructing efforts to retrieve them,” “Conspiring to overturn the results of a presidential election,” and “Attempting to obstruct the certification of a presidential election.” On the classified documents indictment, 57% said Trump either was not indicted (29%) or that or they were not sure (28%.) On the conspiring to overturn the election indictment, 64% said Trump either was not indicted (34%) or that or they were not sure (30%.) On the attempting to obstruct the certification of a presidential election indictment, 63% said Trump either was not indicted (33%) or that or they were not sure (30%.) When it comes to thinking if the ex-president is guilty or not guilty, the results were similar. “Regardless of whether he has been indicted, do you think Trump is GUILTY or NOT GUILTY of the following things?” the question began. On, “Taking highly classified documents from the White House and obstructing efforts to retrieve them,” 86% said Trump was either not guilty (62%) or they were unsure (24%.) Just 14% of Republicans said they thought he was guilty. On, “Conspiring to overturn the results of a presidential election,” 89% said Trump was either not guilty (68%) or they were unsure (21%.) Just 10% of Republicans said they thought he was guilty. On, “Attempting to obstruct the certification of a presidential election,” again, a similar response: 89% said Trump was either not guilty (67%) or they were unsure (22%.) Again, just 10% of Republicans said they thought he was guilty. On all three questions a slight majority of Republicans say they believe Trump will be found not guilty. An average of 89% of Republicans claim Trump either hasn’t been indicted on these charges or they aren’t sure. They have no idea. Upwards of 60% of them deny he’s been indicted specifically, even though he has. I would bet similar percentages of them would deny that he was convicted in the Election Interference case with Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels. Because facts are not their forte. This isn't a reality they want to face. This is on top of the fact that they had a written plan of attack, actually several of them. There was the “1776 Returns” document which the Proud Boys used to attack the buildings. Prosecutors cited “1776 Returns” in Tarrio’s indictment. The document describes plans to “Storm the Winter Palace” — a reference to the Russian Revolution of 1917. The indictment also notes that in celebratory text messages with Tarrio, an associate referenced 1776 and Tarrio responded with “The Winter Palace.” Armes, a former State Department and Special Operations official, said he recognized components of the document as ideas he had composed as part of a “war gaming” exercise he did in August or September of 2020. He would later share those ideas with a friend in the crypto industry who happened to be an associate of Tarrio’s. Armes’ connections, via his crypto advocacy, to figures associated with Jan. 6 don’t end there. He also developed an association with a member of the Oath Keepers now facing obstruction charges. And he co-founded a Florida-based cryptocurrency LLC — Government Blockchain Systems — with former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, an associate of Trump adviser Roger Stone and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). Greenberg would later face a slew of federal felony charges related to sex trafficking and financial crimes, including using Government Blockchain Systems as part of a scheme to embezzle $400,000 from local taxpayers. Armes was not charged in connection with the effort. There was the Fake Electors plan which stated how Trump could block the certification and ultimately “win” the election. The fake electoral certificates were assembled by groups of Trump supporters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin who sought to replace the valid presidential electors from their state — who had been chosen by voters in free and fair elections — with bogus slates of pro-Trump electors. None of the certificates contains any indication that they list illegitimate slates of electors not chosen by those states’ voters. The coordinated, multi-state effort to cast doubt on the 2020 election and undermine the electoral vote process tragically led to the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in which a pro-Trump mob stormed the building and sought to physically block the congressional certification of each state’s real Electoral College votes. There were the Oath Keepers who planned a “Quick Reaction Force” with dozens of long weapons. WASHINGTON (AP) — A member of the Oath Keepers who traveled to Washington before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol testified Wednesday about a massive cache of weapons the far-right extremist group stashed in a Virginia hotel room. Taking the stand in the seditious conspiracy case against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates, Terry Cummings showed jurors an AR-15 firearm and an orange box for ammunition that he contributed to the so-called quick reaction force the Oath Keepers had staged at the hotel outside of Washington in case they needed weapons. “I had not seen that many weapons in one location since I was in the military,” said Cummings, a veteran who joined the Oath Keepers in Florida in 2020. Prosecutors have said teams of Oath Keepers guarded the arsenal of firearms and were prepared to rush them into the hands of extremists in the capital if needed. So are they “peaceful” when they had a written plan to attack and take over the buildings? Are they “peaceful” when they were part of implementing a plan to overturn the election? Are they “peaceful” when they brought stores of long-weapons in case they lost the fight against Capitol police? No, these were truly “Warriors” — and they are not “Victims” and they are not “Hostages.” This is as vile as arguing that the Confederate Soldiers who fought against their own nation were really just part of a “Lost Cause for States Rights.” That’s bullshit. This is merely the story they want to hear. This is the story they want to believe. They don’t want to believe that they have been led down a primrose path of lies to attack their own nation. They committed Sedious Conspiracy and Insurrection. They are Traitors. They’ll never believe it, they’ll never admit it, but it’s the truth. If they can this situation this far upside down - just imagine what they’ll be capable of doing if Trump gets back into the White House? We continue to hear grumblings that if we just cross the next Rubicon — if Trump is convicted, or if he’s jailed, of if somebody does a raspberry in his direction. -- they will resort to widespread violence. I have no doubt that’s true. They’ve already done that — at the Capitol. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/11/2246049/-Trump-stands-up-for-the-victim-warriors-of-the-January-6-Assault-on-Congress?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/