Still unanswered questions on the assault on Congress: the false and divisive narrative of the left
Washington, the first news is non-news: on March 4 there should have been a coup by the Qanon sect, because March 4, according to the sites of the most unpresentable conspiracy theorists of the American right, should have been the "real day of the inauguration" of the administration, hence Trump's return to power. Thousands of National Guard soldiers have patiently garrisoned the headquarters of the US legislature, but the threat has not even materialized. No demonstration, much less a coup d'etat, has disturbed the sleep of the Americans and their elected representatives.
The nightmare of March 4 is just the latest stage in a chapter of American history that opened on January 6 with the assault of Trump supporters (many from Qanon ) on the Capitol. The events of January 6 are described as an "armed revolt" against Congress instigated by Donald Trump. The impeachment process was based on this, from which Trump was later acquitted. Since Biden's inaugural speech, this is now a "foundational event". The morale of the democratic troops and their constituents is sustained by the anger of an assault by the barbarians on the temple of democracy, as well as by the fear that it may be repeated.
But was it an armed revolt? Where were the firearms? They are not seen in the images of the raid on the Capitol. We didn't even spot them in the security camera footage shown by the Democrats during Trump's impeachment trial. No photos of the Capitol police have ever been seen with the array of weapons seized from the insurgents, as they do after each police operation. The fact checkers took it out on Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, who described the January 6 demonstration as an "unarmed" protest. But the fact checkers themselves, those of PolitiFact who also comment on our posts on Facebook , have in turn brought insufficient evidence, stating that, outside the Capitol a protester was seized (which, however, he evidently did not use) and that in a van parked in Washington, not even too close to the legislative headquarters, "materials for making Molotov cocktails" and a taser were seized. The two artisanal bombs found near the headquarters of both parties are mentioned, however, never claimed (and it is also difficult to guess the matrix, considering that the targets were, in fact, both parties, Democrat and Republican). Finally, fact checkers also cite as "weapons" all objects used aggressively by demonstrators, including flagpoles. According to this criterion, however, practically all Black Lives Matter demonstrations should be defined as "armed riots".
This second non-news, the absence of weapons in the "armed uprising" of January 6 was also confirmed last Wednesday by Jill Sanborn, deputy director of counterterrorism of the FBI, during a hearing in the Senate. Also Ron Johnson asked her if the FBI had seized firearms after the assault on the Capitol and the officer replied: "To my knowledge, we did not seize any that day, nor did we make any arrests for that reason" . Asked if gunshots were fired in the Capitol that day, Sanborn replied, "I believe the only shots fired that day were the ones that led to that woman's death." That woman named Ashli Babbitt, 35, veteran of the American aviation, unarmed demonstrator, killed by gunshots fired by a policeman.
So is the picture of what happened on January 6th clearer now? An unarmed demonstration to which the local police responded by killing a demonstrator. Three other protesters died on the same occasion, from causes ranging from illness to falling during a climb on a wall, but not in the course of an armed confrontation. And then there is still the mystery of the only dead policeman, Brian Sicknick, buried with all honors, as a hero, but whose cause of death is unknown.
This is no small detail, the entire Trump impeachment process was built on the death of Brian Sicknick and is the basis of the narrative of the "armed revolt" of January 6. Sicknick, after the events at the Capitol, was alive and had phoned his brother, claiming that he was fine and had twice been sprayed with stinging spray. His death comes the evening of the following day, first denied, then confirmed. The cause has never been revealed. It was probably a hoax that spread by the New York Times , according to which Sicknick had been killed by fire extinguisher: it was based only on anonymous testimony, then not corroborated by medical evidence. Asked about the agent's cause of death, in a Senate hearing on Tuesday, the FBI director did not answer.
For once, let's ask ourselves a few rhetorical questions: what would have happened to reversed parts? What if a policeman killed a leftist demonstrator in cold blood in an unarmed anti-fascist and anti-racist demonstration? If a policeman had died, of unknown causes, more than a day after a Black Lives Matter protest, would they still have considered him a victim of protest violence? Would journalists of the big liberal media have been satisfied with the version given by an FBI director, who, moreover, does not respond? The narrative against the left would be immediately branded as "divisive" and "incendiary". On the other hand, we are used to seeing those of Black Lives Matter and Antifa described as “mainly peaceful demonstrations”, where entire neighborhoods are put to fire and sword. On the contrary, for two months, both the media and politics have been magnifying an event that did not cause deaths, where the only victim is an unarmed demonstrator. And he presents it as an attempted coup, an assault on democracy. What is this but an incendiary and divisive narrative?
The post Still unanswered questions on the assault on Congress: the false and divisive narrative of the left appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/domande-ancora-senza-risposta-sullassalto-al-congresso-la-narrazione-falsa-e-divisiva-della-sinistra/ on Sat, 06 Mar 2021 05:06:01 +0000.