It's a good thing that I don't have a blood pressure problem.
If I did, I'd ask my doctor to increase my medication until the 2024 election is over in November, because the lies being spread by Donald Trump and his Republican sycophants are making me furious -- and it's just January 7.
Which is one day after the three-year anniversary of the despicable insurrection, or riot if you prefer that word, at our nation's capitol in 2021.
Immediately after January 6 of that year most Republicans acknowledged that this violent attempt to prevent the certification of Joe Biden as the duly elected president was a horrendous affront to our democracy and the peaceful transfer of power.
But since Trump remains the undisputed leader of the Republican Party, for reasons which mystify me, GOP leaders and a large percentage of ordinary Republicans have developed a severe case of Politically Motivated Amnesia.
For now about a third of Republicans believe the ludicrous conspiracy theory that the FBI orchestrated the insurrection/riot, not Trump supporters, which obviously was the case.
A quarter of Americans falsely believe federal law enforcement “probably” or “definitely” orchestrated the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, a claim at the centre of a persistent conspiracy theory promoted by right-wing media, Republican officials and former president Donald Trump.
The results of a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll also found that 34 per cent of Republicans and 44 per cent of Americans who voted for Mr Trump continue to believe that FBI operatives organised and encouraged the attack.
Hundreds of people have been tried and convicted or pleaded guilty to charges surrounding the attack, and lengthy congressional investigations and criminal prosecutions have not found any evidence that law enforcement incited the riots in the halls of Congress. Prosecutors and FBI officials have repeatedly rejected such claims in court documents and in sworn congressional testimony.
Equally, if not more disturbing, is how Trump has taken to calling the January 6 rioters who have been convicted of crimes "hostages" rather than prisoners.
During his remarks at a later campaign stop in Clinton, Iowa, Saturday evening, Trump called for the release of those convicted and imprisoned for crimes relating to the riot, describing them as "J6 hostages" and calling on President Biden to release them.
“They ought to release the J6 hostages,” Trump said, drawing cheers from the crowd at Clinton Middle School. “I call them hostages. Some people call them prisoners, I call them hostages. Release the J6 hostages, Joe. Release them, Joe. You could do it real easy, Joe.”
This is both astoundingly wrong and amazingly insulting to actual hostages, such as those being held by Hamas and associated terrorist groups following the October 7 attack on Israel. So much for the supposed commitment of Republicans to support law enforcement officers, given how many were injured by the January 6 rioters.
The Justice Department believes more police officers were injured in the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack than have been officially reported, a top prosecutor said Thursday.
In a news conference commemorating the third anniversary of the insurrection, Matthew Graves, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said it was “likely the largest single-day, mass assault of law enforcement officers in our nation’s history.”
“One hundred and forty officers guarding the Capitol that day reported physical injury, but we know from talking to the hundreds of officers guarding the Capitol that day that this 140 number undercounts the number of officers who were physically injured, let alone those who have suffered trauma as a result of the day’s events,” Graves said.
Keep this in mind next time you hear a Republican falsely claim that they're the "law and order" party. Wrong. The leader of their party wants those who were convicted of assaulting police officers to be pardoned and released from jail, which Trump surely would do if he were to become president again.
The unprecedented images spoke for themselves, but as prosecutors start filing criminal charges against pro-Trump rioters who attacked the US Capitol, new evidence is emerging of the horrifying scenes police officers faced while fighting for their lives that day.
Body camera footage from DC police, testimony from law enforcement officers and social media posts from rioters all chronicled in federal court documents are painting a fuller picture of the hand-to-hand combat between law enforcement and supporters of former President Donald Trump during the violent insurrection that he incited on January 6.
Officers were beaten with whatever the rioters had with them, according to court documents, including an American flag and a fire extinguisher. Scuffles near broken glass led to scrapes and bruises. Some rioters threw punches, while others hurled verbal insults at police.
One US Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick, was killed during the melee. More than 100 other police officers were injured, including members of the Capitol Police and Washington DC's Metropolitan Police Department. At least 15 officers were hospitalized after the insurrection.
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