Tag: riots

Backlash After Washington Post’s ‘March 4 Threat from Militant Trump Supporters’ Story a ‘Mirage’

“On the day when former president Donald Trump’s most delusional supporters swore he would return to power — and the House suspended its business because of supposed threats to the U.S. Capitol — Washington looked on Thursday morning much the way it has for the past two months,” the Post wrote on Thursday.

“National Guard members armed with M4 rifles braced for rebellion that never came. Razor wire lined miles of steel fencing that went unbreached. Trump remained in Florida, where it was 70 degrees and sunny,” it continued.

“I really expected to see more Trump people or something,” one individual present was quoted as saying. “It’s weird how quiet it is today.”

The overreaction included the National Guard being asked to remain in Washington, DC, for another 60 days, as reported by Breitbart News.

Republican lawmakers have blasted the continued deployment, which to date has cost nearly $500 million in American taxpayer funds.

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FBI Director Wray won’t share Officer Brian Sicknick’s cause of death with senators

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday refused to tell senators the cause of death for Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, whose death heavily influenced coverage of the Capitol riot.

Reports after Jan. 6 originally said Sicknick died after being bludgeoned by a fire extinguisher while fighting off then-President Donald Trump’s supporters, which authorities didn’t deny at the time. The claim became part of the impeachment trial case against Trump for allegedly inciting the riot — though his family now says it’s untrue.

Wray cited an “ongoing” investigation into Sicknick’s death.

“I certainly understand and respect and appreciate the keen interest in what happened to him — after all, he was here protecting all of you. And as soon as there is information that we can appropriately share, we want to be able to do that. But at the moment, the investigation is still ongoing,” Wray said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

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Liberal MSNBC host offers no pushback as AP reporter claims George Floyd protests were nonviolent

Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire rejected the idea that there was any violence after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last year while being quick to condemn the Capitol Hill violence that took place Jan. 6. 

On Wednesday, with congressional hearings underway to examine the events that took place before and after the pro-Trump mob disrupted the certification of President Biden‘s election victory, Lemire appeared on MSNBC and attempted to contrast the political violence in Washington D.C. with what took place across the country last summer.

“Let’s be clear, to the different makeup of these protesters, of the people that we saw in June versus the people that we saw in January,” Lemire began. “In June, these were non-violent protesters, racially mixed, a lot of young people fueled by the Black Lives Matter movement. There was outrage by the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed under the knee of a White police officer in Minnesota. There was no violence there.”

Lemire, an MSNBC analyst, continued, “And then, of course, let us remember who was there in January. These were Trump supporters. They were White. They were people who, as it’s been well documented, if the racial makeup of that group had been different, the response at the Capitol likely would have been different as well.”

Liberal anchor Nicolle Wallace offered no pushback, quickly moving the conversation on to the “threat” to the U.S. Capitol.

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As the Insurrection Narrative Crumbles, Democrats Cling to it More Desperately Than Ever

Twice in the last six weeks, warnings were issued about imminent, grave threats to public safety posed by the same type of right-wing extremists who rioted at the Capitol on January 6. And both times, these warnings ushered in severe security measures only to prove utterly baseless.

First we had the hysteria over the violence we were told was likely to occur at numerous state capitols on Inauguration Day. “Law enforcement and state officials are on high alert for potentially violent protests in the lead-up to Inauguration Day, with some state capitols boarded up and others temporarily closed ahead of Wednesday’s ceremony,” announced CNN. In an even scarier formulation, NPR intoned that “the FBI is warning of protests and potential violence in all 50 state capitals ahead of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.”

The resulting clampdowns were as extreme as the dire warnings. Washington, D.C. was militarized more than at any point since the 9/11 attack. The military was highly visible on the streets. And, described The Washington Post, “state capitols nationwide locked down, with windows boarded up, National Guard troops deployed and states of emergency preemptively declared as authorities braced for potential violence Sunday mimicking the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump rioters.” All of this, said the paper, “reflected the anxious state of the country ahead of planned demonstrations.” 

But none of that happened — not even close.

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Utah teacher under investigation for tweeting that he hopes “more Republican senators are killed”

An investigation is underway after a Utah high school teacher posted a tweet following the Capitol riots calling for the killing of Republican senators.

The tweet was made by Parowan High School humanities teacher Brian Townsend. A concerned parent posted a screenshot of the tweet on an Iron County School District Facebook group, saying that Townsend’s tweet was “not appropriate” and “unacceptable.”

Townsend’s tweet, dated February 13, said, “I only hope that next time a president incites a riot at the Capitol, more Republican senators are killed.”

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FBI SEIZED CONGRESSIONAL CELLPHONE RECORDS RELATED TO CAPITOL ATTACK

WITHIN HOURS OF the storming of the Capitol on January 6, the FBI began securing thousands of phone and electronic records connected to people at the scene of the rioting — including some related to members of Congress, raising potentially thorny legal questions.

Using special emergency powers and other measures, the FBI has collected reams of private cellphone data and communications that go beyond the videos that rioters shared widely on social media, according to two sources with knowledge of the collection effort.

In the hours and days after the Capitol riot, the FBI relied in some cases on emergency orders that do not require court authorization in order to quickly secure actual communications from people who were identified at the crime scene. Investigators have also relied on data “dumps” from cellphone towers in the area to provide a map of who was there, allowing them to trace call records — but not content — from the phones.

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Biden AG Pick Says Antifa/BLM Attacks on Courthouse May Not be Domestic Terrorism Because They Happened at Night

When questioned by Senator Josh Hawley about if he considers Antifa and Black Lives Matter attacks on the courthouse in Portland to be “domestic terrorism,” Joe Biden’s Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland said he might not, because those attacks happened at night.

Garland said that his personal definition of domestic terrorism is the use of violence or threats of violence to interrupt the democratic process, therefore, attacks on buildings at night probably don’t count.

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The False and Exaggerated Claims Still Being Spread About the Capitol Riot

What took place at the Capitol on January 6 was undoubtedly a politically motivated riot. As such, it should not be controversial to regard it as a dangerous episode. Any time force or violence is introduced into what ought to be the peaceful resolution of political conflicts, it should be lamented and condemned.

But none of that justifies lying about what happened that day, especially by the news media. Condemning that riot does not allow, let alone require, echoing false claims in order to render the event more menacing and serious than it actually was. There is no circumstance or motive that justifies the dissemination of false claims by journalists. The more consequential the event, the less justified, and more harmful, serial journalistic falsehoods are.

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