Truth of Jan. 6 appears to lie somewhere between the extremes

Tucker Carlson’s broadcasts regarding Jan. 6, 2021, have drawn attention to that day again. Carlson said his producers reviewed 44,000 hours of video made available by the speaker of the House and it mostly just showed people milling aimlessly about inside the Capitol building. But many political leaders and most of the media refer to it as a violent insurrection. The truth of what happened that day appears to lie somewhere between those extremes.

A lengthy investigation was conducted by a House Select Committee. Its partisan nature cast doubt on its conclusions, but its report does provide some insights. It shows that Trump’s speech at the Ellipse that day had little to do with the breach of the Capitol building. Fringe groups who did not attend the speech led the breach of the building. They had already removed the barricades protecting the Capitol building before Trump even finished speaking.

Some walking from the speech, about two miles away, did enter the Capitol building, mostly through doors already opened by the fringe groups. They are likely the people Carlson said were walking aimlessly around. Most coming from the speech, nearly 8,000, did not enter the building. One person was killed inside the Capitol building by a Capitol police officer, and one Washington, D.C., police officer was seriously injured by some from the fringe groups. It was definitely a regrettable day.

There appears to be no rational reason for the action of the fringe groups. The House report indicates it was to stop the certification of the election, but the most they could have done would have been to delay it a day or two. Knowing that the groups had several embedded FBI informants and knowing of the improper actions against Trump taken by some in FBI leadership positions during the Russian hoax as uncovered by the Department of Justice investigator general, I think it’s more likely that the FBI handlers encouraged their informants to incite this action in an attempt to tarnish all Trump supporters.