Associated Press
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday downplayed the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, saying it was not an insurrection but rather a “protest” that “ended up devolving, you know, in a way that was unfortunate, of course.”
DeSantis, speaking in an interview on the podcast of comedian Russell Brand, said the idea that Jan. 6 “was a plan to somehow overthrow the government of the United States is not true, and it’s something that the media had spun up.”
The violent attack by a mob of supporters loyal to then-President Donald Trump was fueled by lies that the 2020 election was stolen. Rioters stormed the building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory, breaking windows, fighting police officers and forcing lawmakers and former Vice President Mike Pence to flee for their lives. Nine deaths were linked to the attack, including four officers who later died by suicide.
“If somebody is honestly doing an insurrection against the U.S. government, then prove that that’s the case and I’ll be happy to accept it, but all you’re showing me is that there were a lot of protesters there and it ended up devolving, you know, in a way that were unfortunate, of course. But to say that they were seditionists is just wrong,” said DeSantis.
More than 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 600 of them have pleaded guilty, while approximately 100 others have been convicted after trials decided by judges or juries. More than 550 riot defendants have been sentenced, with over half receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from six days to the 18 years Rhodes received.
More than 250 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement who were trying to protect the Capitol, including more than 85 accused of using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
The Florida governor has made similar comments in the past dismissing that the attack was an insurrection, saying at a January 2022 news conference that it was “an insult to people” to call it an insurrection when “nobody has been charged with that.”
At a campaign event in June in New Hampshire, DeSantis said he “didn’t enjoy seeing” what happened on Jan. 6 but said “we’ve got to go forward on this stuff. We cannot be looking backwards.”
19 comments
Thomas Kaspar
July 22, 2023 at 7:14 pm
Did you see any single person in the US Capital that was mentally capable of taking over command and control of the Pentagon and the US Military away from General Miley ?
PeterH
July 22, 2023 at 9:06 pm
Hopefully the MAGA nutcases have learned their lesson by the example of the 1000+ terrorist who invaded the Capitol on January 6th……. and are now serving time in prison. Most, if not all, are better off in prison…..out of trouble and away from thei guns that have been confiscated.
Jay Smif
July 22, 2023 at 9:55 pm
There should have been a thousand dead Ashlis on the Capitol steps that day.
There is no “downplaying” Fat Hitler’s failed coup.
Mr. Haney
July 23, 2023 at 5:59 am
Not much if an American are ya?
StupidMFKRS
July 22, 2023 at 8:19 pm
Isn’t it amazing when rightfully angry J6 protestors acutely stormed the Capitol, this was considered more important than when pervasive BLM/ANTIFA protestors committed ARSON on minority businesses, assaulted elderly and disabled people in the streets, tossed fireworks at police horses, murdered people and tormented people in their vehicles and homes. WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU? It tells you: WE THE ELITES IN CONGRESS don’t give a SHITE if anyone protesting burns down your home, business, punches a police horse, stabs your grandmother or torches a Church. NOPE. You peasants out there can SUFFER. But if YOU DARE come into the Capitol, where WE the elites do all our DIRTY WORK, oh….well, wait a minute here…you swine…we will execute you immediately. And track all you peasants down and toss you in jail, despite never once asking for surveillance of the buisnesses burned on behalf of the commoners named Luis and Laura American Citizen, right? No F them. It’s all bout us, here in the US Capitol. We don’t care if anyone’s business was burned down. We don’t care if you lost your life savings because a bunch of Harris/Biden/Obama/ Soros funded violent BLM and Antifa freaks who couldn’t make it in college and plane tickets and hotels paid for by Open Society freaks, torched everything in their path. Not our problem. We’re in the IVORY tower…and omg! How dare these peaceful protesting J6ers who were escorted by Capitol police invade OUR Capitol. Get these peasants out of here. If this were an insurrection you would’ve seen what we all saw during the Soros (a complete madman identifying his whole life as a Nazi and hell bent on paying back USA for stomping Germany in WW2) backed BLM/ANTIFA riots.
PeterH
July 22, 2023 at 9:01 pm
Take your medication and stop your infatuation with Qanon conspiracy theories!
Mr. Haney
July 23, 2023 at 6:00 am
Keep trying bigot
Linda Camacho
July 23, 2023 at 11:05 am
Oh, dear, you do seem to be having an off life.
Dont Say FLA
July 23, 2023 at 10:07 pm
Over $80 million and counting awarded by the US judicial system to BLM protestors abused by police.
For the J6 “protestors,” nothing but prison sentences have been handed out.
Your false equivalency has been tried and convicted multiple times as entirely false.
PeterH
July 22, 2023 at 8:58 pm
Fact’s First:
Currently there is not a single Republican Presidential contender on the 2024 Klown Kar who can win the nomination without 100% support from the January 6th MAGA terrorist.
Tjb
July 22, 2023 at 10:23 pm
If the protesters were drag queens, DeSantis would be demanding death sentences for these insurrectionists.
My Take
July 22, 2023 at 11:36 pm
The capitol attack was to trigger the coup, not be the coup. The actual coup was to be via GOP statehouses, OK’d by the corrupt USSC. Trump was to be the ìnstalled leader.
My Take
July 23, 2023 at 1:00 am
Putting so many of the traitorous 1/6 insurrectionists behind bars for years has had a wonderful effect on preventing further attacks.
Sue wiley
July 23, 2023 at 5:50 am
Mr. DeSantis, ohh ye of lily white hands, oh ye who have the very nerve because you see yourself as so special – so special as to say how people served up to and including their very bodies as slaves :
Who were beaten to within an inch of their lives and many until their lives were tskrn
By the hand of the men who “owned”
them. And, women who were “owned” by
And raped repeatedly by slave masters—-
Whose children produced from those rapes were then sold away from their mothers who loved the children snd were
Broken hearted while they continued to be raked by the self- same masters / owners
Over and over again for years and years,
And, now here comes Ron DeSantis who says slaves learned from slavery. And, that people who were historically enslaved should not learn or know
their history.
What do you think you would learn from being enslaved, beaten. raped, impregnated, having one’s children sold away, being nearly starved to death, working the hot summer fields all day with little to no food, having a food amputated to prevent one from running from such treatment.
AND, deSantis doesn’t want these facts known to the people whose ancestors suffered this treatment.
AND, “ good” people still support and vote for him??? Don’t we have better people to be our leaders?
Kerry McCollough
July 23, 2023 at 9:36 am
Violating the oath of office seems sufficiently traditional to those of us who have taken the oath.
Perhaps the person talking about a “traditional” crime has committed the same violation?
Michael K
July 23, 2023 at 9:37 am
DeSantis loves protests so much he has essentially banned them from Florida’s capital. And no, governor: J6 was not a peaceful protest: it was an organized and violent attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power and overturn the result of a free and fair election. The radical right wing MAGAts remain unconvinced of the truth, and DeSantis is stooping mighty low to suck up their votes – yet they are nothing more than useful idiots to his selfish goals. He could care less about his oath to the constitution, America or democracy. He is unfit to serve.
My Take
July 23, 2023 at 3:43 pm
DeSSgustus downplays generational chattel slavery slavery.
A clumsy insurrection is easy compared to that.
My Take
July 23, 2023 at 4:06 pm
Do you suppose anyone is yet contemplating violent extremes if 2024 doesn’t go their way?
Cheating sure, the GOPers are all over that.
But violence?
Dont Say FLA
July 23, 2023 at 10:12 pm
Absolutely the MAGA-NRA gun nuts are planning on violence if they lose again. They have 60+ firearms each. They’re very sure they will win their little “Civil War.”
The funny things they fail to realize are
– they have only two hands each
– most of them can’t walk up even a single flight of stairs
– soon as the old folks home learns they had guns on premises, they’ll be homeless for violating their leases
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