GOP talking points on Jan. 6 'insurrection' are 'all over the map': analysis

27 June 2024

When attorney and Never Trump conservative George Conway made a Thursday morning, June 27 appearance on MSNBC, he argued that President Joe Biden shouldn't hesitate to hammer Donald Trump on his legal problems during their first 2024 debate. Trump has been convicted on 34 felony charges in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money/falsified business records case, and he is facing three other criminal indictments as well — two of which deal with his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Moreover, many Trump allies are facing criminal charges in an election interference indictment from Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. And Florida-based attorney Daniel Gielchinsky has said that Mayes' case will "most likely" become Trump's fifth criminal indictment.

The January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building is relevant to all of the election interference cases that Trump and/or his allies are facing. In his June 27 column, MSNBC's Steve Benen examines the wide variety of talking points that pro-Trump Republicans, this election year, are using about the Capitol insurrection.

"To be sure, three-and-a-half years after the insurrectionist riot, Republican rhetoric on the subject is all over the map," Benen observes. "Some in the party argue that January 6 was justified because of a ridiculous election conspiracy they've concocted. Other GOP voices insist that the assault on the Capitol was some kind of plot hatched by Antifa and/or the FBI."

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York), hoping to be chosen as Trump's running mate, has described the January 6 defendants as "hostages." But other Trump defenders are being more subtle in their comments.

Benen cites Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pennsylvania) and Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Florida) as examples of Republicans who "expect Americans to believe that Trump wasn't responsible for the attack that he instigated."

"The former president, the argument goes, didn't do what he obviously did," the Rachel Maddow producer explains. "Sure, the public might've seen Trump summon a mob, fill them with lies, and deploy them to Capitol Hill with instructions to 'fight like hell.' Nevertheless, that's not stopping GOP lawmakers such as Vance, Waltz and Meuser from going along with the gaslighting campaign, effectively telling voters that they shouldn't believe their lying eyes."

Vance recently commented, "I think that no real Republican with any credibility in the party is still blaming (Donald Trump) for January 6."

This comment, Benen notes, is a major departure from Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) saying, in January 2021, that Trump was "practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day."

"A year later," Benen argues, "the bipartisan January 6 Committee made clear to everyone — the public, history, federal prosecutors who appear to be working possible criminal indictments — exactly who bore responsibility for one of the most serious instances of political violence in American history…. The apparent fact that 'no real Republican with any credibility in the party is still blaming him for January 6' says a great deal about the state of the party."

Steve Benen's full MSNBC column is available at this link.

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