Although the rioters were Donald Trump supporters, even the mountain of evidence shows that they acted in a criminal manner. This has not stopped the cascade of unverified claims seeking to shift blame.
The Jan 6 attack on the Capitol was re-written by partisans of the former president Donald Trump as the riot unfolded. Republican lawmakers, influential conservative voices, and President Trump have spent months downplaying and denying the violence and chaos.
There is no evidence that antifa was behind the attack.
It’s irrefutable that the rioters were Trump supporters, but that hasn’t stopped the cascade of bogus claims trying to place blame on others.
Social media spread a false theory blaming agitators affiliated with antifa, a loose association of anti-fascist activists, before the riot had ended. Fox News personalities and Republican members of Congress quickly repeated versions of the claim.
According to the FBI, antifa supporters did not take part in the riot two days after the Capitol was breached. NPR’s database of arrest records reveals that none of the more than 729 people charged with rioting so far have any connection to antifa. It has angered some that antifa has gotten such an honor.
Don’t you dare try to tell me that people are blaming this on antifa and BLM,” one participant wrote on his Facebook page, according to charging documents. “We proudly take responsibility for storming the Castle.”
However, nearly 70 percent of Republicans surveyed in a May Yahoo News/YouGov poll and more than half in a September Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) poll believed left-wing protesters were to blame for the violence.
There is no evidence that the FBI orchestrated the attack.
Others have speculated, without evidence, that federal agents orchestrated the riot to trap supporters of Trump.
It has been reported that FBI agents and informants have been referred to in court documents as a “confidential human source,” “an informant,” or as those who are acting in an undercover capacity. According to the theory, those listed as “unindicted co-conspirators” were also undercover FBI agents or informants.
Two FBI informants with ties to the far-right group the Proud Boys attended the Jan. 6 events, according to the New York Times in September.
The FBI has not orchestrated the attack, so this does not amount to proof. Moreover, records show one of the informants went to Washington on his own initiative and not at his handler’s request.
The riot, despite denials, was violent, resulted in several fatalities, and included weapons.
There were 150 injuries to federal and local police officers during the riot at the Capitol, as well as $1.5 million in damage to the building. Yet despite graphic videos showing assaults and destruction, conservative voices have insisted the events were largely peaceful, akin to a “peaceful protest” or “normal tourist visit.”
Several recent polls indicate that roughly a third of Republicans believe that the attack on the Capitol was mostly peaceful a year later.
Trump has repeatedly and inaccurately compared the violence at the Capitol riot to the racial justice protests in 2020.
During Fox News interviews last year, he claimed “no guns were used at all” and there was only one fatality, compared with multiple fatalities, “a lot of guns” and “no repercussions” during Black Lives Matter protests.
There is no truth to those claims. At least three rioters face gun charges, including a Maryland resident who carried a weapon into the Capitol.
Justice Department records show that more than 75 defendants with dangerous or deadly weapons have been charged with entering a restricted area. The attack is linked to seven deaths.
A comparison between the riot and the Black Lives Matter protests can be misleading.
Several lawmakers have echoed Trump’s comparison of the racial justice protests of 2020 and the Jan 6 riot. According to experts and data, the Capitol riots were more violent.
During the summer of 2020, between 15 million and 26 million people participated in Black Lives Matter protests across the United States, and most of them were peaceful.
The Washington Post reported that more than 17,000 people were arrested during the racial justice protests. Approximately 22% of the 2,600 arrests with details about the charge or protester included 582 arrests related to violence or threats of violence.
In other words, 1 in 4400 people arrested committed a violent crime, assuming the same crime rate across the entire arrestee population.
The Capitol grounds were estimated to have up to 10,000 people. A total of 176, or about a quarter, of the more than 729 arrests so far have been related to violence. This means at least one out of every 56 arrests is related to violence.
News Source : The New York Times