Over the course of two years, hundreds of witness interviews and 10 highly choreographed public hearings, Democrats in Congress attempted to create a carefully constructed narrative about the January 6 Capitol Hill riots.
How fitting that such an extravagant expenditure of government resources should be tossed in the trash by a single cable news segment.
On Monday night, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson played never-before-seen footage of the uprising at the Capitol. The closed-circuit security tape appears to show the infamous so-called QAnon Shaman (aka Jacob Chansley) being led through the halls of Congress by police.
The video has no sound, so we can’t hear what the police said to Chansley. But we can see with our own eyes – Chansley has not overpowered anyone.
In fact, it appears that the Capitol Police willingly ushered him, shirtless and horn-adorned, into the Senate chamber for his infamous photo-op.
So, despite all the effort and expense that went into the January 6 committee, why is America only seeing these images now?
The answer is obvious. It didn’t fit the Democrats’ narrative, so it was left out.
Democrats, aided by two staunchly anti-Trump Republicans, attempted to portray January 6 as an uprising — inspired, led, and directed by Donald Trump.
They recruited a former top news executive to build the drama. Democrat-aligned media forced millions of Americans to watch. And it all cost the American taxpayer more than $3.3 million.
But it was easily undermined because it was all so blatantly, blatantly disingenuous.
Democrats, aided by two staunchly anti-Trump Republicans, attempted to portray January 6 as an uprising — inspired, led, and directed by Donald Trump.
The closed-circuit security tape appears to show the infamous so-called QAnon Shaman (aka Jacob Chansley) being led through the halls of Congress by police.
They couldn’t release video of the QAnon shaman wandering the Capitol, taking selfies and walking past police because it clouds the story. And as a result, the January 6 committee failed in all their maneuvering and selective mounting and mock outrage.
Every sane, patriotic Republican looks on with disgust at the January 6 riots. Those who have committed violence and crimes must be prosecuted. And they have been. But conservatives and free-thinking Americans also recognize what happened here.
Trump’s opponents in Congress and in the media wanted to point at him, shout bogeyman, remove him from American political life and return to business as usual. That’s useful for them, but insufficient for the rest of us.
Anger in the United States isn’t just a Trump problem — it’s an American problem. And it’s time the partisan media and the political establishment recognized it as such.
This week, 23 members of Antifa were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism for a violent attack on a police training center in Atlanta.
Predictably, the New York Times reported it this way: “Protesters damage property at site of planned Atlanta police center?”
‘Protesters’? ‘Property damage’?
Nearly two dozen people have been charged with domestic terrorism for attacking police with bricks, stones and Molotov cocktails.
Police called the incident “a coordinated attack.” The mayor of Atlanta called it “domestic terrorism.” And the New York Times calls them “protesters.”
This week, 23 members of Antifa were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism for a violent attack on a police training center in Atlanta.
Nearly two dozen people have been charged with domestic terrorism for attacking police with bricks, stones and Molotov cocktails.
How else to explain this blatant double standard of the media than to conclude that despite the left hand wringing over the January 6 riots, they accept some violence.
For years, Antifa, which ridiculously bills itself as “anti-fascists,” has torched police stations, attacked journalists, and built squalid, crime-ridden autonomous encampments in our cities. But unlike the Capitol rioters, the media and the political class have made excuses for them.
Remember when CNN’s Chris Cuomo compared Antifa to the troops that stormed Normandy on D-Day? “I argue tonight that all blows are not morally equal,” he said in 2018, as Americans clashed in the street. “If someone comes calling bigots and things get hot, even physically, are they as much wrong as the bigot they’re fighting? I claim not.’
Remember when Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler, the leading member of the House Judiciary Committee no less, dismissed Portland Antifa violence as a “myth,” even after they bombed federal officers and buildings in 2020?
The American left has a disturbing history of looking the other way when there are acts of violence they deem just.
Murderous members of the Weather Underground are now celebrated professors. Cop killers like Mumia Abu Jamal and criminals like Angela Davis are quasi-heroes.
In January, it was revealed that an Antifa member was the transgender son of Democratic housewhip Katherine Clark. The younger Clark was arrested for graffitiing anti-police slogans on public property. A cop was left bleeding as an Antifa gang tried to stop the arrest.
In fact, it seems that the Capitol Police willingly led him, shirtless and adorned with horns, to the Senate Chamber for his infamous photo-op.
In Atlanta, Thomas Webb Jurgens, one of the arrested Antifa terrorist agitators, was an attorney for the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center. The irony would be delightful if it weren’t so dangerous. The SPLC claims that its primary mission is to fight domestic terrorism, and here one of its own hard-working cops is said to be attacking.
The sad fact is that Antifa on the left and the Proud Boys on the right are cut from the same cloth. Both groups are disaffected, mostly white, young people, disenchanted with America, trying to burn the current iteration to the ground.
No political committee can heal this gaping wound in the American soul.
Democrats thought they could tie a nice bow around the Capitol riots and blame their political opponents — but the reality is much harder to confront.
I thank Speaker McCarthy and Tucker Carlson for exposing the shallow, selfish purpose of the January 6 committee.
And I propose a new starting point in the fight against extremism: treat all political violence the same way and deal with it. But please spare us the convention theaters – you’re not kidding anyone.