Some Republicans show sympathy toward January 6 rioters

Ryan Faircloth and Reid Forgrave, Tribune News Service

At a VFW in this western Minnesota city, about 150 people showed up on the third anniversary of the Jan.6 riot at the US Capitol to watch a documentary that blames much of the violence that day on escalation by law enforcement. Among those in attendance: three Minnesotans who’ve been federally charged in the riot and two GOP state representatives. Steve Boyd, a Republican running for Congress in Minnesota’s Seventh District, introduced the film. “It’s quite the story,” Boyd said.

This month, part two of the documentary, produced by the Epoch Times, a far-right media company affiliated with the Falun Gong religious movement, was shown during a conservative women’s event at a Burnsville Library.

Tayler Rahm, a Republican running for the state’s Second Congressional District seat, was there. A couple weeks earlier, Rahm suggested in a public debate that there’s a two-tiered justice system that treats Capitol rioters worse than those who rioted in Minneapolis after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

“Look at what they’re doing to individuals out on Jan. 6 compared to how they treat people here in Minneapolis,” said Rahm, a criminal defense lawyer seeking to challenge Democratic US Rep. Angie Craig. Rahm didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Minnesota state Rep. Mike Wiener, a Republican, said at a town hall in Fergus Falls that people should reserve judgment on members of the Westbury family charged in connection with the Capitol riot. “These guys are innocent until proven guilty,” he said. Many Republicans in Minnesota and the US are showing increasing sympathy toward Jan. 6 rioters and, in some cases, attempting to downplay the violence of that day as former President Donald Trump seeks a return to the White House. Some GOP candidates are sharing such feelings openly while other elected officials stay silent about what they think about the Jan. 6 violence.

Boyd, who’s mounting a primary challenge against GOP US Rep. Michelle Fischbach, asked whether Jan. 6 rioters “are being persecuted for being in opposition to a political power.” “It’s no secret they hate Trump, so anyone associated with him — ‘If we can take this group and label them insurrectionists, we need to make that narrative work,’” Boyd, a Christian conservative from Kensington, said in an interview.

Boyd said he hasn’t met anyone who disagrees with punishing those who broke windows, vandalized the Capitol, assaulted police officers or forced their way into the building. But he said it doesn’t make sense to prosecute someone who walked into the Capitol “through an open door,” looked around and then left.

Rosemarie Westbury of Lindstrom, whose husband and three sons face federal charges related to Jan. 6, framed that day as inspirational, not insurrectionist.

“Was there some violence? I suppose there was,” Westbury, who was not charged related to the Capitol violence, said at the Fergus Falls event. “I personally didn’t see it, except when the police were lobbing these grenades and flash-bangs out at us.” Minnesota DFL chair Ken Martin said “this revisionist history is just completely unacceptable.” “This wasn’t just some sort of group of tourists that were strolling through the Capitol sightseeing,” Martin said.

About 140 police officers were assaulted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. More than 1,200 people have been charged in connection with the riot. A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll published in January found that 42% of Republicans say punishments for Jan. 6 have been “too harsh.” About 7 in 10 said too much has been made of the riot and it’s “time to move on.” A quarter of the Americans polled said the FBI might have instigated the riot, something conservative media have promoted without credible evidence.

“There are large groups within the Republican Party who don’t think (President Joe) Biden was elected legitimately, who don’t think Jan. 6 was a big deal, who think the FBI was in charge (of perpetrating the riot),” said Michael Hanmer, director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement.