RedState Publishes, Then Retracts Bonkers Claim There Was No Capitol Riot
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 3 years ago • 2 commentsBy: Maxwell Tani (The Daily Beast)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Updated Jan. 11, 2021 7:00PM ET / Published Jan. 11, 2021 4:33PM ET 
Joseph Prezioso/Getty
Conservative website RedState on Monday published and then retracted an article that angrily and falsely declared "Enough! There Was No Riot, Insurrection or 'Storming!'" at the U.S. Capitol last week.
"Let me be real clear. There was no riot in DC. There was no insurrection. There was no 'storming' of the Capitol Building," wrote the piece's author Mike Ford, a retired infantry office. "There was a peaceful rally. There was a largely peaceful protest that was marred by some bad acts by a very few people. There was and is, absolutely nothing to be traumatized or intimidated by. It's time to tell the press, the politicians and even our pastors, stop the gaslighting."
The piece dismissed last Wednesday's riot—which resulted in five deaths, including a police officer defending the building—as the actions of merely a "couple of bozos." The vast majority of the rioters, Ford claimed, "were all staying inside the velvet guide ropes, surely not the actions of a rabid mob bent on violence or chaos." The conservative writer also described the violence as being akin to "some pushing and shoving along the barrier line," and claimed the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick was not "officially connected to any illegal, violent act."
After immediate backlash online from critics pointing out the article's numerous factual inaccuracies and potentially dangerous suggestions, RedState deleted the post. "Overnight, this article about January 6th was published," the publication wrote in a note replacing the article's text. "Many details, opinions, and analysis contained in the piece were either incorrect or inappropriate. It has been retracted and we regret its publication."
Following its deletion, Ford retreated to the article's comments section to justify his work, telling readers that his article was retracted for showing how "factually there was no 'riot,' 'insurrection,' or 'storming' of the Capitol Building." Elsewhere in the comments, he traded in the popular right-wing conspiracy theory—one debunked by numerous reports and an FBI investigation—that "ANTIFA/BLM infiltrators wee [ sic ] definitely proven to be on the ground in advance and within the crowd."
Over the past several years, RedState—launched in 2004 and currently owned by Salem Media, a publicly traded Christian conservative company—has morphed into yet another vociferously pro-Trump blog on the right, at times expelling any potential critics from within its own ranks.
As The Daily Beast reported, in April 2018, the site fired a handful of its most prominent writers, all of whom were openly and often critical of Trump. "There was a time that Republican politicians were terrified if [RedState] excoriated them from the front page," then-fired contributor Ben Howe said at the time. "But the modern conservative movement seems to have grown tired of accountability. 'Liberal tears' is the new operating principle. Unless you're causing those tears to flow you aren't being a team player."
And just last year, the right-wing site was caught up in a media scandal when, as The Daily Beast first reported, its trollish managing editor, who went by the pseudonym "streiff" and wrote blogs trashing immunology official Dr. Anthony Fauci as a "mask nazi" and suggesting some government officials should be hanged for the "massive fraud" known as the "Wuhan virus scare," turned out to be William B. Crews, a public-affairs specialist working for Fauci's agency.
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Did someone from the conservative side of Newstalkers moonlight and write that article for Red State?
BONUS ARTICLE
GOP Congressman Who Investigated Benghazi Calls Trump Inciting Riot 'A Misstep'
A Republican congressman who spent years investigating the 2012 Benghazi raid , during which four Americans died, said Monday that Democrats were “overplaying” the five deaths that resulted from last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol .
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said during an appearance on Fox Business that President Donald Trump had made a “misstep” after host Maria Bartiromo asked him if an impeachment effort would have any real effect.
“Well, it’s probably similar to shutting off the Twitter feed of somebody after his presidency is essentially over,” Issa said. “It’s kicking him when he’s down. It’s getting rid of 88 million people who follow and listen to the president.”
Issa then suggested Democrats were just playing politics.
“There’s no question at all that, I think, the liberals saw an opportunity, a misstep by the president, that they’re going to overplay, and they’re overplaying it as we speak,” he said. “They’re overplaying a lot of things, including the death of these people on Capitol Hill.”
Many Republicans have attempted to paint Black Lives Matter protests against police violence and racial injustice as violent, dangerous gatherings — an argument Issa seemed to repeat when talking about the attack on the Capitol.
“It was a terrible event, terrible things, people need to be punished, but of course they’re trying to use it to imply that there’s only one side that has violence and completely ignoring all of last year and the unchecked violence from the left,” he said.
You can see the exchange below.
Many Twitter users noted that Issa and other Republicans conducted numerous investigations into the Benghazi raid , none of which produced evidence of wrongdoing by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton .
Others just couldn’t seem to believe the politician was downplaying the historical riots.
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