How 'false prophets' and 'trust-fund babies' pushed Capitol rioters to 'bloodthirsty' violence one year ago

When a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol Building a year ago on January 6, 2021, there were two types of insurrectionists: the rioters who did the dirty work and committed physical violence, and the MAGA Republicans who whipped them into a frenzy with false claims that Trump didn’t really lose the 2020 election. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, in an op-ed published by the Washington Post on January 5, stresses that the “false prophets” who deceived the rioters need to be held accountable along with the rioters themselves.

“Looking back on the events of January 6, perhaps we should focus more on the false prophets who inspired the violence of that day than the rioters we still highlight on video loops,” the Never Trump conservative and former GOP congressman argues. “Those who beat cops with American flags should serve long jail sentences, but the most important lesson from that tragic day may come from deconstructing how plutocrats and trust-fund babies deployed propaganda campaigns to push that bloodthirsty mob up the Capitol steps.”

Scarborough continues, “The ‘Big Lie’ bloodletting happened at the behest of a slumlord’s son, who inherited more than $400 million and used his presidency to undermine citizens’ faith in their country. His anti-American poison was spread through the arteries of one foreign family’s media empire and soon metastasized across the American heartland…. These right-wing billionaires and their allies are trying to brainwash millions of Americans into believing the U.S. government is deploying Afghanistan War helicopters to launch domestic attacks against them, that the FBI is purging patriots from society and that the ‘Deep State’ staged the January 6 riot as a ‘false flag’ to strip citizens of their constitutional rights.”

The “hate-filled hysterics” of MAGA politicians, according to Scarborough, “fueled the Capitol riot” a year ago.

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“The targets of their misinformation campaign now await trial or languish in jail while the authors of these phony crises sleep comfortably in their marbled mansions and beachside resorts,” Scarborough observes. “They are free to travel the world on their super yachts or private jets while January 6 defendants beg for their freedom in federal court. What a dichotomy between these plutocrats and the working-class populists they duped into doing their bidding on January 6.”