The Four Tortured, Pathetic Arguments Republicans Use to Downplay January 6th

"But by late July Trump himself took things full circle, releasing a tweet-like statement in which he falsely claimed that evidence might yet implicate Antifa or BLM activists: "Will Nancy release the thousands of hours of tapes so we can see the extent to which ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter played a role?""

"He concluded, "Hopefully, Mitch McCoell and Kevin McCarthy are listening!""

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"He concluded, "Hopefully, Mitch McCoell and Kevin McCarthy are listening!""

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"Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), who voted for Trump's impeachment, lost her leadership post for refusing to toe Trump's authoritarian line."

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"Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), who voted for Trump's impeachment, lost her leadership post for refusing to toe Trump's authoritarian line."

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"It Was Nancy Pelosi's Fault!"

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"Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) took this absurd argument and twisted it even further, painting the assailants as the victims."

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"In the May House hearing, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) cited injuries to police and other fallout "from BLM riots last year" to strike a pose of outrage that "we're going to discuss today -- as if none of that happened -- the events of January 6th."

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"Cheney was replaced by Rep. Elaine Stefanik (R-N.Y.), a onetime critic of the 45th president who has shamelessly morphed into a Trump toady.nn"

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"Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) -- accused of inciting the violence in his own speech to the mob that day -- was an early spreader of this disinformation:nn"

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"Aside from the reflexive GOP impulse to blame Pelosi for everything, condemning her makes no more sense than blaming her GOP counterpart McCoell, about whose actions Republicans have been totally silent."

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"(Trump reportedly backed down from installing Clark only in the face of a threat of mass resignations at DOJ.)"

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"On December 27th, according to notes recently uncovered by the House Oversight Committee, Trump himself pushed top DOJ officials to "just say that the election was corrupt" and "leave the rest to me."nn"

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"South Dakota's John Thune, the GOP Senate whip, admitted that getting to the bottom of Trump's complicity in that assault on our democracy pales in importance to 2022's midterm elections."

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"South Dakota's John Thune, the GOP Senate whip, admitted that getting to the bottom of Trump's complicity in that assault on our democracy pales in importance to 2022's midterm elections."

This is a negative sentiment.

"But rather than simply avoid the subject, D.C. Republicans have increasingly painted Trump's attempted "autogolpe" as an innocent protest that got a little out of hand."

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"In May, Trump released a statement in which he demanded Republicans oppose "the Democrat trap of the January 6 Commission" calling it "just more partisan unfairness... unless the murders, riots, and fire bombings in Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago, and New York are also going to be studied.""

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"In real time, GOP leaders had blamed Trump for the day's violence. ""

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"Others have attempted to deflect attention from Trump by insisting that January 6th was relatively harmless compared to the (utterly unrelated) urban unrest in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder."

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"Forget for a moment that Pelosi was in the Capitol at the time and her office was breached, and that this argument amounts to blaming a victim for that day's crimes."

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"(For some prominent Republicans the bravery only lasted days: McCarthy backtracked by January 21st, saying of Trump: ""

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"One of the earliest lies about January 6th is that the violent agitators were not in fact Trump supporters, but rather undercover Antifa agents trying to harm the reputation of honest conservatives."

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"Still others have followed the president's lead to argue -- without any logic or evidence -- that culpability for the violence that day lies not with the man who riled up the mob, but with a woman whose Capitol office was breached: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi."

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"The oddest, laziest argument Republicans have yet surfaced is that Pelosi is somehow to blame for the carnage of January 6th because she failed to anticipate -- and fortify the Capitol against -- the eventuality that the president of the United States would turn loose a mob to attack a co-equal branch of government."

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"In light of these fresh details, the January 6th insurgency -- whipped to motion by Trump's orders to "fight like hell" against the certification of the Electoral College results -- appears to have been the serious, last-ditch act of a would-be tyrant to hold on to power."

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"The most powerful House Republican, McCarthy -- who recently fantasized aloud about striking Pelosi with the Speaker's gavel if he were to succeed her in 2022 -- also parroted this nonsense: "If there is a responsibility for this Capitol, on this side, it rests with the Speaker," McCarthy said."

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"But faced with the reality that Trump's backers savagely beat and insulted officers (as detailed by the officers themselves in a recent congressional hearing), powerful Republicans have shrugged their shoulders."

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"He's blasted his party's "insane" rhetoric, and argued that it smacks of the GOP's "desperation to try to derail" an effective inquiry -- while still seeking the validation of dear leader Trump."

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"In fact, it was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day," Hice said, "not Trump supporters who were taking the lives of others."nn"

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"Mitch McConnell, then Senate majority leader, was even more direct, insisting Trump was "practically and morally responsible" for provoking the siege on the Capitol by people who "believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president."

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"Mitch McConnell, then Senate majority leader, was even more direct, insisting Trump was "practically and morally responsible" for provoking the siege on the Capitol by people who "believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president."

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"In a May interview on Fox News, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) insisted of January 6th that, "by and large, it was peaceful protest," while arguing that "it wasn't... an insurrection.""

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"In a May House hearing, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) insisted that "to call it an insurrection... is a bold-faced lie.""

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""All Donald Trump needs to see is that you're making a defense, no matter how nonsensical that defense is," Kinzinger said in a recent interview."

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"A rash of new evidence has made clear that Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 election were more sophisticated and far-reaching than Americans knew in real time.nn"

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"For a brief moment, it appeared as if Trump -- deprived of his Twitter megaphone and exiled to Mar a Lago -- might have lost his stranglehold on the Republican Party."

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"Had Capitol Police not sacrificed their bodies to slow and blunt the actions of the mob, it's impossible to say what heinous acts might have been executed, as Trump supporters, who'd set up a gallows in the shadow of the Capitol, stormed the halls chanting, "Hang Mike Pence!"nn"

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"He took issue with an entry in an official timeline: "'2:07 PM: A mob of Trump supporters breached the steps'?""

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"Of all the arguments marshaled by Trump's GOP defenders, the effort to gaslight Americans into thinking the events of January 6th"

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"Those who stood up to Trump's flamboyant falsehoods about the 2020 election paid a price."

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"Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) likewise described the insurgency as "a mob of misfits."nn"

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"(McConnell, as if taking his cue from Trump, would call the independent commission a "purely political exercise" and join with 35 GOP senators who succeeded in blocking its creation by using the filibuster.)nn"

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"Republican congressman -- and rare Trump antagonist -- Kinzinger of Illinois insists that his party continues to make a mockery of itself, and its obligations to defend our democracy, to please the 45th president.nn"

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"The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack by mob rioters," House minority leader Kevin McCarthy said on January 13th."

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"The very next day, Stefanik, newly the third-ranking House Republican, stepped in front of cameras to blast Pelosi: "The American people deserve to know the truth that Nancy Pelosi bears responsibility as Speaker of the House for the tragedy that occurred on January 6th."

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"Newly uncovered documents show how Clark had endeared himself to Trump by circulating a draft letter in December that would have demanded the Georgia legislature "immediately call a special session" to consider overturning Trump's narrow loss there, citing unspecified "irregularities.""

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""I think it's important to point out that Democrats created this environment sort of normalizing rioting, normalizing looting, normalizing anarchy in the summer of 2020," said Rep. Jim Jordan (R. Ohio) in late July."

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"But as the weeks and months passed -- and Trump not only prevailed against impeachment (again) but steadily reasserted himself as the GOP's one true king -- most Republicans cowered."

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"Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) is one of a pair of House Republicans now serving on a special committee to investigate January 6th."

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"But by late July Trump himself took things full circle, releasing a tweet-like statement in which he falsely claimed that evidence might yet implicate Antifa or BLM activists: "Will Nancy release the thousands of hours of tapes so we can see the extent to which ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter played a role?"nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"This reckless and debasing behavior by top Republicans is an indication of the stranglehold Trump has over the modern GOP, and the extent to which he remains the "audience of one" for whom GOP politicians perform on TV."

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"In a July 26th statement, Trump lofted the idea that Pelosi's actions should be scrutinized, leveling false charges: "Will Nancy investigate herself and those on Capitol Hill who didn't want additional protection, including more police and National Guard, therefore being unprepared despite the large crowd of people that everyone knew was coming?"nn"

This is a negative sentiment.

"In a July 26th statement, Trump lofted the idea that Pelosi's actions should be scrutinized, leveling false charges: "Will Nancy investigate herself and those on Capitol Hill who didn't want additional protection, including more police and National Guard, therefore being unprepared despite the large crowd of people that everyone knew was coming?"nn"

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"Trump's pressure on the Department of Justice, in particular, was relentless."

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"In early July, Rep Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) sent around a fundraising email surfacing a new conspiracy theory: "Facts are coming to light that the FBI might have had a hand," he wrote, "in planning and carrying out that event."

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""If you stand in front of the proper news chael that Trump watches and say, 'This is Pelosi's fault,' you've just done your job."

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""If you stand in front of the proper news chael that Trump watches and say, 'This is Pelosi's fault,' you've just done your job."

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"But in that May House hearing, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) contested the obvious."

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"In reality, as federal prosecutions have underscored, the overwhelming majority who participated in the events of January 6th were, indeed, Trump supporters who had been summoned to gather in D.C. by the president (who'd tweeted: "Be there."

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""I don't know who did a poll that this is Trump supporters.""

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