The weaponization of January 6
After the disputed 2020 election with questionable results in numerous states, millions of President Trump's supporters were enraged. There were election challenges and protests across the country.
The major protest on January 6 in Washington, D.C. was the culmination of weeks of rallies across the country. Although estimates vary widely, the January 6 rally featuring President Trump attracted at least 500,000 supporters.
The overwhelming majority of the participants heeded President Trump's plea to "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard." Some participants marched to the U.S. Capitol, and about 900 people entered the building.
Research from the staff of U.S. senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) shows that approximately 40% of those who entered the U.S. Capitol were allowed into the building by the police. Among the rest, those who committed vandalism or assault should be prosecuted. The others may have entered the building illegally, but their actions do not rise to the level of terrorism.
It has not stopped some far-left activists masquerading as analysts from claiming that the events of January 6 were worse than 9/11, the day that the country was attacked by Islamic terrorists, which resulted in the deaths of 2,977 innocent people. According to Steve Schmidt, co-founder of the disgraced Lincoln Project, "[t]he 1/6 attack for the future of the country is a profoundly more dangerous event than the 9/11 attacks, and in the end, the 1/6 attacks are likely to kill a lot more Americans than were killed in the 9/11 attacks."
This claim is beyond ludicrous, for the 9/11 attack prompted a U.S. military response and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that claimed the lives of over 7,000 brave members of the United States military, 8,000 contractors, and an untold number of innocent citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In contrast, five people died on January 6, including four of natural causes. The only person to be killed on that fateful day was Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and Trump-supporter, who was unarmed. She was killed by a U.S. Capitol Police officer who has been allowed to remain anonymous.
To compare January 6 to a day that led to so many thousands of deaths and serious injuries is an insult to the victims of 9/11. It is minimizing that horrific day and comparing it to an intrusion in the U.S. Capitol that was improper and unwise, but not anywhere close to a jihadist attack.
Another hyperbolic "analysis" was spewed by MSNBC commentator Matthew Dowd, who claimed that January 6 was "worse" than 9/11. He said, "To me, though there was less loss of life ... Jan.6 was worse than 9/11 because it's continued to rip our country apart and give permission for people to pursue autocratic means."
The insanity of these comparisons is truly astounding, but they are happening with regularity in the left-wing media. Here is what the analysts refuse to acknowledge: Trump-supporters are not terrorists or threats to America. Almost all of them have a deep and abiding love for America and are extremely patriotic.
They hate what happened to President Trump and the injustices he suffered from the Deep State and the media and his many political enemies. They also have legitimate questions about how the 2020 elections were handled in numerous states.
Democrats are claiming that this political passion is a threat to the country. It is why Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has kept National Guard troops and barriers around the U.S. Capitol for so many months. The impression of these actions is that Trump-supporters are dangerous.
Democrats will continue to use the events of January 6 as a political weapon to distract from the horrible record of the Biden administration. After the first six months of the Biden administration, the country is in total disarray.
The breakdown at the border has been both shocking and predictable, as President Joe Biden discarded every successful policy of the Trump administration. With a staggering total of 180,000 border apprehensions per month and untold numbers of illegal aliens evading capture, this crisis shows no signs of ending any time soon.
Under Biden, inflation has returned with a vengeance as prices for back-to-school items, lumber, gasoline, and certain groceries are skyrocketing. Schools are beset with toxic teachers espousing Critical Race Theory. Crime is becoming much worse in the major urban areas of the country, all run by Democrats.
The foreign policy of President Biden is no better. While President Trump negotiated historic peace deals, Biden has been unable to stop violent conflicts in the Middle East from erupting. His administration has shown incredible weakness in dealings with China, Russia, and Iran. While tensions escalate, our military is sadly going woke and being purged of conservatives.
There is no area that the Biden administration can point to as a success. While the president likes to brag about job gains, the employment numbers were predicted by economists as the nation continues to recover from last year's COVID-19 shutdown.
While President Biden constantly pushes vaccinations for Americans, he failed to reach his targets for July 4. Now the administration is proposing a ludicrous and dangerous policy of going door to door to push vaccines on Americans who have refused the shot.
With so many problems, the Democrats need to divert the attention of Americans with more hysteria about Donald Trump and the protests of January 6. The media helped the Democrats by continuing to keep the story alive; however, it is almost never reported that some of the protesters were Antifa infiltrators and FBI informants.
Although the exact number of imposters is not known, the FBI is keeping close tabs on all the Trump-supporters who entered the U.S. Capitol. The FBI has been on a crusade to arrest every protester who entered the U.S. Capitol on that day. While a few protesters destroyed property or attacked police officers, the vast majority were nonviolent. At this point, approximately 500 people have been arrested. Some of them remain in prison in horrific conditions.
Interestingly, the same level of prosecutorial zeal is not being displayed toward the rioters who rampaged across the country in the summer of 2020. Why are Trump rally-goers being treated more harshly than rioters who burned down buildings?
On the day of the protests, Americans were distracted from the congressional debate on the 2020 election. Today, the events of January 6 are being used by Democrats to avoid discussion of the Biden record.
As a result of the January 6 protests, President Trump was impeached again and removed from social media. Clearly, the January 6 narrative is serving a useful purpose for Democrats, and they are not likely to abandon it any time soon.
Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award-winning program, Ringside Politics, airs nationally on Real America's Voice Network, AmericasVoice.News weekdays at 7 A.M. CT and from 7 to 11 A.M. weekdays on WGSO 990-AM and Wgso.com. He is a political columnist and the author of America's Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on Crouere.net. For more information, email him at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com.
Photo credit: Blink O'fanaye, CC BY-NC 2.0 license.
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