For the most part, the media portrayed Wednesday’s mob storming the U.S. Capitol as violent, bordering on treasonous.
But not all placed blame on the same people.
A commentator for Newsmax, an ultra-conservative cable channel, said the protesters “didn’t look like Trump supporters. Trump supporters don’t do these things.”
Sean Hannity of Fox News said “agitators,” must have been planted to stir up the crowd.
Fox’s Tucker Carlson defended the rioters as “solid Americans” who are “deeply frustrated.”
Some went so far as to say Antifa — a loose movement of far-left activists — was responsible for the violence, citing a man in a Viking costume as evidence.
That man is Jake Angeli and identifies with the conspiracy movement QAnon. Look closely — which is easy because he often parades shirtless — and you’ll see a Ku Klux Klan tattoo on his stomach.
And what was the president’s demeanor during mayhem?
“Borderline enthusiastic” according to CNN White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins who interviewed White House officials with the president that afternoon.
The president was hopeful the violence would mean “the certification (of the Electoral College votes) was being derailed,” Collins said.
EVER SINCE Trump took office, he has taken a perverse delight in pitting people against each other as if governing were some kind of gladiator contest.
Such an environment has created an incredible turnover among members of his administration.
Among what is considered an administration’s “A Team” — chief of staff, national security adviser, press secretary, White House counsel, etc. — there’s been a 91% turnover rate during Trump’s tenure. In terms of his cabinet, including Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of State, Defense, and Attorney General, 14 members have left in the last four years. That’s a turnover rate several times over that experienced by the previous four administrations, going from Barack Obama to George H. Bush.
On Wednesday, the president urged the demonstrators to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell” for him, not democracy.
With a goal of only causing destruction, the thugs terrorized legislators and staff, violated people’s personal belongings and spaces and desecrated the Capitol’s very halls by waving Confederate flags throughout — a first in its history.
