Donald Trump has been less than subtle about his support for the January 6 rioters, with the former president offering assurances about future pardons, among other things. Indeed, we have reached the point in the cycle where the presumptive Republican nominee calls the January 6 rioters “hostages” in virtually every public appearance while focusing on his ties to suspected and convicted insurrectionists.
However, he continues to find new ways to praise those who attacked his own country’s Capitol in his name. The Hill reported last night:
In fact, the presumptive GOP nominee seemed quite animated on the subject. In addition to touting the rioters as “warriors” and “victims,” Trump told his audience in Nevada, “All they did was protest a rigged election. That’s what they were doing.”
He went on to say that police officers encouraged rioters to enter the Capitol — a bizarre and discredited claim — before emphasizing, “No people have ever been treated more horribly than J6 hostages.”
No, really, that’s what he said.
“When we come in, things happen very quickly. We’re going to do a lot of things. We are going to look very closely at J6. Never have people been treated more horribly than J6 hostages” – Trump pic.twitter.com/gMEbI86UDw
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 9, 2024
The result is an increasingly dizzying political dynamic without precedent in the American tradition: a convicted criminal, surrounded by other convicted criminals, runs on a presidential platform to defend the interests of yet other convicted criminals.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said last week that voters should view the Republican Party as “the rule of law team.” The fact that he said this with a straight face remains disturbing.
But let’s not lose sight of the broader contrasts either. President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign recently deployed three police officers starting Jan. 6: Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, Agent Harry Dunn and Agent Danny Hodges – to hit the campaign trail as surrogates and warn voters about the threat Trump poses to our system of government.
The result is a dynamic in which the former Republican president sides with those who committed acts of violence against police officers, while the incumbent Democratic president aligns himself with the officers themselves.
Moreover, none of this is pushed to the background. On the contrary, Team Trump and Team Biden may not agree on much, but it appears both are eager to put the January 6 attack at the center of the 2024 presidential election. Heck, the presumptive Republican nominee doesn’t just favor the criminals of Jan. 6, he has also called for prosecution of investigators of Jan. 6 and expressed support for prosecuting members of the Capitol Police.
Let no one say that voters won’t see stark contrasts this year.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
