Transparency on J6 deep-sixed

I've long maintained that the unrest at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021 was not the darkest day in 246 years of our Republic, but it certainly wasn't a "peaceful protest" either. 

On his Fox News program Monday evening, Tucker Carlson released previously unseen video footage from that day. While I still believe that there are some of the Capitol stormers who have been rightly charged with a crime and thus deserve the jail sentences that were handed down, it would appear a good number of people could make the case they were victims of prosecutorial overreach. 

The "protesters" milling around the inside of the Capitol (some even staying within the velvet rope lines, other escorted by Capitol police) were trespassing. We can't overlook that. But the idea they were involved in some grand conspiracy to overthrow the government (which the walking cadaver in the White House believes can only be done with F-15s and nukes anyhow) while taking "selfies" seems far fetched. As such, the unconscionably long jail sentences they received does not appear to fit the crime. 

Naturally the questions posed in the aftermath of seeing this footage was why it wasn't available during the Jan. 6 show trials. Certainly the likes of GOP Congressmen Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan were pushing for that when the J6 Committee was formed.  Hot Air's Ed Morrissey broached that issue. 

Nancy Pelosi successfully blocked skeptical Republicans from serving on the committee, who might have highlighted these videos and their nuance early in the process. That could have allowed for a fuller, more accurate understanding of the riot, the Capitol Police response, and the actual threat level inside the Capitol that day. Clearly violence took place, because that’s also on video and in physical evidence in the form of police officers injured by attacks. But as is becoming clear, at least a good portion of the trespassing may have been just that — trespassing — and not an insurrection.

Instead, Pelosi cooked the committee and the committee cooked the narrative. And as one could easily predict, the national media swallowed it and acted as Pelosi’s amplifier rather than ask any serious questions about what really transpired on January 6. I’d call that another big issue, but by this time the media’s collusion with the Beltway establishment is so well known as to be understood.

It is my sincere hope that those who have received unjustifiably long prison sentences will benefit from the release of these videos. Again, not every one of those protestors scaled the exterior of the Capitol building, fought law enforcement or engaged in vandalism. 

All that said, I would urge the pro-Trump crowd to resist going on offense with the J6 incident as a whole. Political righties chafed at the leftist media characterization that protests in the summer of 2020 were "mostly peaceful." And rightly so. But if Trumpkins believe they have some moral high ground to refer to the 1/6/2021 incident as "mostly peaceful," then they're just as dishonest and delusional as the legacy media. 

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