Conspiracy theories muddy reality
Top falsehoods aim to deflect blame for violence at Capitol
Millions of Americans watched the events in Washington last Jan. 6 unfold on live television. Police officers testified to the violence and mayhem. Criminal proceedings in open court detailed what happened.
Yet the hoaxes, conspiracy theories and attempts to rewrite history persist, muddying the public’s understanding of what actually occurred during the most sustained attack on the seat of American democracy since the War of 1812.
By excusing former President Donald Trump of responsibility, minimizing the mob’s violence and casting the rioters as martyrs, falsehoods about the insurrection aim to deflect blame for Jan. 6 while sustaining Trump’s unfounded claims about the free and fair election in 2020 that he lost.
Spread by politicians, broadcast by cable news pundits and amplified by social media, the falsehoods are a reminder of how many Americans may no longer trust their own institutions or their own eyes.
Several conspiracy theories have emerged in the year since the insurrection, according to an analysis of online content by media intelligence firm Zignal Labs on behalf of The Associated Press.
An examination of some of the top falsehoods about the deadly riot and the people who have spread them:
Rioters were not Trump supporters:
False. Many of those who came to the Capitol on Jan. 6 have said — proudly, publicly, repeatedly — that they did so to help the then-president.
Different versions of the claim suggest they were FBI operatives or members of the anti-fascist movement antifa.
“Earlier today, the Capitol was under siege by people who can only be described as antithetical to the MAGA movement,” Laura Ingraham said on her Fox News show the night of Jan. 6, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. “They were likely not all Trump supporters, and there are some reports that antifa sympathizers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd.”
The next day, Ingraham acknowledged the inaccuracy when she tweeted a link to a story debunking the claim.
Another Fox host, Tucker Carlson, has spread the idea that the FBI orchestrated the riot.
Carlson cites as evidence the indictments of some
Jan. 6 suspects that mention unindicted co-conspirators, a common legal term that merely refers to suspects who haven’t been charged, and not evidence of undercover agents or informants.
Carlson is a “main driver” of the idea that Jan. 6 was perpetrated by agents of the government, according to Zignal’s report. It found the claim spiked in October when Carlson released a documentary series about the insurrection.
Members of Congress, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., have helped spread the theories.
During testimony before Congress, FBI Director Christopher Wray was asked whether there was any reason to believe the insurrection was organized by “fake Trump protesters.”
“We have not seen evidence of that,” said Wray, who was appointed by Trump.
The rioters weren’t violent: False. Dozens of police officers were severely injured.
One Capitol Police officer who was attacked and assaulted with bear spray suffered a stroke and died a day later of natural causes.
Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who rushed to the scene, said he was “grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country.” The assault stopped only when he said he had children. He later learned he had suffered a heart attack. Fanone resigned from the department in December 2021.
Rioters broke into the Senate chamber minutes after senators had fled under armed protection. They rifled through desks and looked for lawmakers, yelling, “Where are they?”
In House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, staffers hid under desks while rioters called out the name of the California Democrat.
That’s not how some Republican politicians have described the insurrection.
Appearing on Ingraham’s show in May, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said he condemned the Capitol breach as well as the violence, but said it was wrong to term it an insurrection.
“By and large it was a peaceful protest, except for there were a number of people, basically agitators, that whipped the crowd and breached the Capitol,” Johnson said.
Johnson has since said that he doesn’t want the violent actions of a few to be used to impugn all.
Rep. Andrew Clyde, after watching video footage of rioters walking through the Capitol, said it resembled a “normal tourist visit.”
Other video evidence from Jan. 6 showed Clyde,
R-Ga., helping barricade the House doors in an attempt to keep the rioters out.
Trump called the insurrection a display of “spirit and faith and love.”
Rioters also broke windows and doors, stole items from offices and caused $1.5 million in damage.
Trump did not encourage the rioters: False. Trump may now want to minimize his involvement, but he spent months sounding a steady drumbeat of conspiracy theory and grievance, urging his followers to fight to somehow return him to power.
“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted Dec. 19, 2020. “Be there, will be wild!”
Immediately before the mob stormed the Capitol, Trump spoke for more than an hour, telling his supporters they had been “cheated” and “defrauded” in the “rigged” election by a “criminal enterprise” that included lawmakers who were now meeting in the Capitol.
At one point, Trump did urge his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voice heard.” The rest of his speech was filled with hostile rhetoric.
“We fight. We fight like hell,” he told those who would later break into the Capitol. “And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
Now, Trump says he had nothing to do with the riot. “I wasn’t involved in that, and if you look at my words and what I said in the speech, they were extremely calming actually,” he said on Fox News in December.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe Trump bears some responsibility for the Capitol breach, according to a survey last year by Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.