As January 6th approached I wondered how the President would approach the Capital riots, one year on. To summarise his Jan 6th speech, he managed to get through it more or less coherently but failed miserably to take the opportunity to unite a country that his administration had done much to divide. The subtext was that those MAGA right winger deplorables couldn’t be trusted with democracy and that only he and his cohorts could carry the torch of freedom handed down by the founders. It was the speech of a desperate man beset on all sides by the evidence of his own failures and so, no surprise to anyone.
To get a fresh look at the event with the benefit of hindsight, I turned to the Irish Times and was immediately struck by the editorial titled The Irish Times view on the Washington insurrection: US democracy is still under attack. (IT 06/01/22) I suppose that I shouldn’t have been too surprised but the lack of any basic journalistic endeavour to present a balanced view is very tiresome and yet another example of where the legacy press is today. I don’t intend to examine it line by line but the word Insurrection in the title deserves some attention. As the editorial staff at the Irish Times well know, a Reuters report in August 2021, reported that the FBI could find no evidence of an insurrection.
WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) – The FBI has found scant evidence that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result, according to four current and former law enforcement officials. Reuters 21/08/21
The Times in it’s own editorial initially refers to the rioters as a ‘mob‘ that stormed the Capital and then upgraded them to ‘insurrectionists‘ mid way through the piece. MSN defined the term Insurrectionist as follows, “The Cambridge Dictionary defines “insurrection” as: “an organized attempt by a group of people to defeat their government and take control of their country, usually by violence” At this point I would like to commend the IT for not calling it an armed Insurrection as many others did. As of 1st May 2021 Julie Kelly (13/05/21) found that only 44 out of 400 people arrested were charged with either possessing or using a dangerous weapon. The list of the armoury is as follows:
- Nine people with pepper spray;
- Nine people with a pole or flagpole;
- Four people with a riot or police shield;
- Four people with a small baton;
- Three people with a stick;
- Three people with a baseball bat;
- Two people with a taser;
- Two people with a fire extinguisher;
- Two people with a crutch;
- One person with a stun gun/walking stick;
- One person with a police helmet;
- One person with a knife;
- One person with a hockey stick;
- One person with an ice axe.
No wonder the combined forces of the Capital Police, DC Metropolitan Police, FBI and the National Guard were overcome!
The editorial goes on to repeat the progressives trope that Trump was responsible for the attack stating, “the insurrectionists were directed by the then president to “fight” to prevent Vice-President Mike Pence from validating the electoral college votes in the official tally in the House that day.” The word “fight” used by Trump in his address on the 6th has been used by nearly every newspaper as evidence that he was urging his supporters on to defeat the government by force. The IT deliberately took it out of context. When Churchill called for the British people to ” fight on the beaches” he literally meant that people should forcibly defend their homes against the invaders. When Boris says that he will fight the next election on a certain issue the difference in meaning is quite clear and the public and the IT know it. What is strangely missing from the text is what Trump also said and this needs no interpretation,
“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” D Trump excerpt from 06/01/21 speech
Here the Irish Times and its political allies in the US have a problem. In the Cambridge Dictionary definition of an Insurrection there has to be three elements: organisation, ambition to overthrow the government and violence. The same report from Reuters stated, “Though federal officials have arrested more than 570 alleged participants, the FBI at this point believes the violence was not centrally coordinated by far-right groups or prominent supporters of then-President Donald Trump, according to the sources, who have been either directly involved in or briefed regularly on the wide-ranging investigations.” The Reuters article was published in August 2021, does anyone believe that if there was any possibility of tying Trump to any of these elements, that the press and big tech would remain quiet? Also very telling is the fact that as at Jan 4th. 2022, although unleashing the largest investigation under taken by Federal agencies the DC prosecutors haven’t enough evidence to charge any of the 710 arrested with insurrection or any like charge. Of the 71 sentenced so far, 64 were found guilty of misdemeanours’ of which the most common charge was for parading or demonstrating in the Capital. (realclearinvestigations 04/01/22) I mean parading???
Hopefully, we have dispensed with the IT and US legacy press claim than Jan 6th was an insurrection. However, the Democratic led Jan 6th. Committee is trying very hard to connect the Capitol riots with historic events such as Pearl Harbour and 9/11. They are trying to make the riot a unique event, another ‘day of infamy.’ The difficulty here is twofold. The first is that just as with the two impeachment attempts, the public has moved on. The second is that so called ‘threats against democracy’ are more common than they pretend. For example, in 2009 the Wisconsin State Capital was attacked by progressive protesters. In Texas the State Capital was invaded by Pro Choice activists and in 2017 there was the anti Trump riots in DC protesting against Trumps inauguration. We also have the invasion of the Capitol during the Kavanagh proceedings in an attempt to halt the business of Congress. If the Committee and the IT were really interested with ‘threats to democracy’ perhaps they should look at the almost year long riots of the previous year. Real Clear Investigations did a comparison of the Jan 6, 2020 and 2017 riots. The summary is as follows:
Highlights:
The summer 2020 riots resulted in some 15 times more injured police officers, 23 times as many arrests, and estimated damages in dollar terms up to 1,300 times more costly than those of the Capitol riot.
Authorities have pursued the largely Trump-supporting Capitol rioters with substantially more vigour than suspected wrongdoers in the earlier two cases, and prosecutors and judges alike have weighed Capitol riot defendants’ political views in adjudicating their cases.
Dozens of accused Capitol rioters have been held in pretrial detention for months, where they have allegedly been mistreated.
In the summer 2020 riots, the vast majority of charges were dismissed, as they were in the Inauguration 2017 unrest. Prosecutors have dropped a single Capitol riot case.
I think that the BLM led protests of 2020 fit the definition of an insurrectionist movement much better than the ill led and organised mob that the IT and legacy media see as the main threat to democracy. The message here is that when you discuss an historical event, context is everything. This applies not only to the riot but also to the editorial reference to electoral fraud and Trumps attempt to reverse the result. We seem to have forgotten that the last three times a Republican won a presidential election the Democrats in the House brought objections to the Electoral votes the Republican won. The House Democrats contested both elections of former President George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 and President Trump’s win in 2016. Four years after the vote Clinton is still claiming she won. “There was a widespread understanding that this election [in 2016] was not on the level,” Clinton said during an interview for … The Ticket. “We still don’t know what really happened.” (Yahoo 20/10/20) So was Clinton and the legacy press’ claim that Trumps election was illegitimate the match that ignited the 2017 riot which resulted in 200 arrests?
The full title of the editorial is The Irish Times view on the Washington insurrection: US democracy is still under attack. Hopefully, you accept that the claims that Jan 6th was an insurrection have been disproved. By the way, a good test to ask anyone who pushes the insurrection claim, is to ask them how many people were killed that day. If they say 7, then they are including 3 people who died subsequently to the riot. If we take the remainder, on the day, one died of an accidental overdose, two of heart failure and one was shot. So who was actually killed on Jan 6? It was an unarmed protester, Ashley Babbitt, who was shot by a Capitol Police officer whilst she was attempting to enter the building via a window. I can only say that if the same procedure was applied to the BLM protested police shootings as was applied in this case we would see a repeat of the 2020 violence in a city near you today. As a foot note, Officer Sicknick was not killed by a fire extinguisher or bear spray but suffered a heart attack post Jan 6. So what is left in the article to discuss. The IT has followed the progressive line in calling voter legislation fraud, “There is a real danger that the changes could facilitate a Trumpite-Republican majority in the November midterms and even clear a path to Trump’s re-election in 2024.” (IT 06/01/22) You will note the breathless invocation of ‘the Trump’ as if there is no other proof needed to evidence the presence of evil intent in the Bills. I think that the comparison between the various red state reforms with Biden’s Voting Rights Bill is for another day but I would recommend Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections by Mollie Ziegler Hemingway as a thought provoking assertion that the election was fraudulent but in a different way than Trump argued. Think Hunter Biden and the news blackout about the contents of his laptop, during an election.
Jan 6 is a very big subject and much of the true story hasn’t been told. Video evidence has been restricted and even denied to defence attorneys on very frail grounds. The involvement of the FBI is beginning to be questioned especially after revelations in the forthcoming Governor Witmer case. Given the size of the Federal police operation, why is there no progress on the mysterious ‘pipe bomber’? The New York Times reported that at least two FBI informants were with the Proud Boys when they breached the first exterior barrier right before 1 p.m. on January 6, doing what exactly? What about accusations of police brutality, have they been properly investigated? Why was the Capitol Police so badly prepared and why won’t Pelosi release her mails concerning the Security of Congress. Are those arrested being given fair trials and why are some still in prison for minor charges, especially comparing this to the bail set for the Wisconsin Parade Killer. Where is the ACLU on prisoners rights as a Judge finds two DC Jail officials in contempt of Court stating, “I find that the civil rights of the defendant have been abused”? (thedailybeast13/10/21) The list just keeps going and as I have already stated the public has moved on. The strategy of using Trump to frighten voters has failed in Virginia and other states where the lack of any alternate Democratic policy was laid bare. The IT editorial has a second part to it which claims that, “US democracy is still under attack.” Do we really think that these mainly ‘trespasser’s’ and ‘paraders’ and rioters armed with sticks and pepper spray are domestic terrorists? Are they really a match for the forces of law ranged against them such as the DC Police, Capital Police, ATF, FBI, Secret Service, National Guard et al? The real threat to Democracy is where the Attorney General investigates parents who criticise school boards under domestic terrorism laws. The real threat to Democracy was a lie supported by the legacy press, big tech and senior government officials who claimed that the elected President was a Russian Spy. The real threat to Democracy was the corrupt affairs of Hunter Biden in China and Ukraine and the possible link to his father. The real threat to Democracy was the suppression of any reference to the Hunter Biden laptop which had an effect on the election. There are many other examples of politically driven malfeasance from Biden’s administration where the common denominator is a corrupt elite in government, the law, education, entertainment and big tech supported by the compliant press.. This is what I see in the Irish Times editorial. A willingness to buy in to a narrative that was set on Jan 6 before all the facts were clear. A hysterical clinging to the bogeyman Trump and an unwillingness to commit to good, well balanced journalism.
References
All emphasis or highlighting in the text is mine.
The Irish Times view on the Washington insurrection: US democracy is still under attack , Editorial, 06/01/22
FBI confirms there was no insurrection on Jan. 6 (msn.com) Conn Carroll, 20/08/21
Exclusive: FBI finds scant evidence U.S. Capitol attack was coordinated – sources | Reuters ,Mark Hosenball and Sarah N. Lynch, 21/08/21
Still No Evidence of Armed Insurrection on Jan. 6 (theepochtimes.com) Julie Kelly, 13/05/21
www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/09/09/realclearinvestigations_jan_6-blm_comparison_database_791370.html Jan 4th
news.yahoo.com/hillary-clinton-maintains-2016-election-160716779.html, Mairead McArdle, 9/10/20
www.thedailybeast.com/furious-judge-finds-dc-jail-officials-in-contempt-for-abuse-of-jan-6-prisoner-christopher-worrell, Pilar Melendez, 13/10/21