Photos Of People Who Invaded US Capitol Suggest Ties To Far-Right Movements
Images taken from last night’s invasion of the US Capitol indicate some of those involved in the mob were tied to far-right movements – not members of Antifa in disguise, as Trump supporters have suggested.
President Trump urged supporters in the crowd at his ‘Save America’ rally in The President’s Park to march on the Capitol as lawmakers convened yesterday, January 6, to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
The day descended into chaos as hundreds of people stormed the building, forcing it into lockdown as offices were taken over by protesters, lawmakers were evacuated and shots were fired in the crowd.
Trump acknowledged the mob was made up of his supporters, as he tweeted, ‘We love you, you’re very special,’ but it has since been claimed that the protesters were actually anti-fascist activists posing as the pro-Trump crowd.
Among those pushing the conspiracy theory were former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Alabama Republican Mo Brooks, and Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, who tweeted,’These are not Trump supporters.’
Georgia lawyer Lin Wood tweeted that there was ‘Indisputable photographic evidence that antifa violently broke into Congress’, alongside a link to phillyantifa.org, where an image of a bearded man involved in the mob was hosted.
However, Wood failed to note that the linked page exposed photos of known individuals in the neo-Nazi movement, the New York Times reports.
Other tweets claimed that ‘busloads’ of anti-fascist activists infiltrated protests, with one Twitter writing, ‘Of course they did,’ alongside an image of a man wearing a horned helmet with his face painted in an American flag design.
The post implied the man was one of the ‘infiltrators’, but The Arizona Republic identified him as Jake Angeli, a QAnon supporter who has been ‘a fixture at Arizona right-wing political rallies over the past year’.
Angeli has reportedly appeared outside the Arizona Capitol numerous times to spout claims about various conspiracy theories, most related to beliefs promoted by QAnon.
Some social media users claimed Washington DC police actually ‘escorted’ members of Antifa into the US capital ahead of the protests, but a spokeswoman for DC’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has confirmed to Reuters this assertion is false.
Public Affairs Specialist Alaina Gertz commented, ‘The Metropolitan Police Department does not act in the capacity of private security for any group.’
Trump supporters were found to have been planning the protest for weeks, using forums such as TheDonald to promise violence against lawmakers, police and journalists if Congress did not reject the results of the 2020 election.
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