Sorry, Nancy, Trump had no role in inciting the J6 riot

 “The president of the United States, the former president and his toadies, do not want to face the facts,” said an embarrassed Nancy Pelosi after a video surfaced of her saying, “We take responsibility” for the breakdown of order on January 6.

“They are trying to do revisionist history on January 6,” Pelosi continued, “but we cannot let us be dragged into their again [sic] false impression about what happened that day.  They know what happened that day.”

Unfortunately, many conservatives in the media and in government do not know what happened that day.  Unlike Pelosi and her cabal mates, however, they are at least trying to get at the truth.  As I explain in detail in Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6, a useful place to begin is the timeline of events.  A quick review reveals an exculpatory fact so obvious and so powerful that it is astonishing that no one seems to have noticed.

On January 5, Trump posted on Facebook, “I will be speaking at the SAVE AMERICA RALLY tomorrow on the Ellipse at 11AM Eastern. Arrive early—doors open at 7AM Eastern. BIG CROWDS!”  For no reason I could discover, Trump started his speech an hour late.  Had he started on time, audience members would have flooded onto the Capitol grounds just about 1 P.M. — just when the conspirators, friend and/or foe, were expecting them.

One o’clock P.M. seems to have been the witching hour.  At about 12:40 P.M., a woman spotted a six-inch pipe bomb as she walked down an alley near the RNC headquarters in Washington.  The timer appeared to be set for the bomb to explode in twenty minutes, at 1 P.M.

At 12:53, Ray Epps and his crew breached the first line of bicycle racks on the Capitol’s west side.  At 12:58, a single individual — conveniently not yet identified — pulled down the temporary fencing protecting the lawn and with it the signs saying, “Area closed.”

At 1 P.M., Vice President Mike Pence convened a joint session to certify the electoral votes.  Minutes after 1 P.M., an undercover USCP officer spotted an apparent bomb sitting conspicuously in a bush next to a park bench outside the DNC.

At 1:06, while Rep. Paul Gosar was challenging the certification of the Arizona vote, Capitol Police deputy chief Eric Waldow ordered the “less lethal” team to begin shooting a barrage of grenades, gas, and rubber bullets into the still peaceful protesters now numbering about a thousand on the Capitol’s west side.

In violation of all norms, the police were shooting at head level.  This bizarrely unprofessional attack helped enrage the crowd and likely killed one of them, Kevin Greeson.  Greeson suffered a fatal heart attack when a flash bang exploded feet away.  A body cam captured one officer lamenting, “We can hit them with a lot of pain compliance, but we’re hitting innocent people.  We’re taking out one and getting ten angrier.”

Trump has been accused of provoking the riot by telling his supporters during his speech on the Ellipse, “And we fight.  We fight like hell.  And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”  One problem with his charge, a rather large one: Trump made this statement at approximately 1:10 P.M.  The Ellipse is roughly a 45-minute walk from the Capitol.

The late Ashli Babbitt stayed until the end of Trump’s speech.  At 2:00 P.M., a protester behind Ashli just happened to take a perfectly framed photo of her as she approached the Capitol, her Trump 2020 flag worn cape-like over her shoulders, her uncapped hair flowing down her back.  Had Trump not delayed his speech, Ashli and thousands of others would have arrived just when they would have done the conspirators the most good.

At 1:38, Trump tweeted, “Please support our local police and law enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful.”  At 1:49, a “riot” was declared.  Those who stayed to the end of Trump’s speech, as Ashli Babbitt did, would not yet have arrived at the Capitol.

At 1:59, on the east side of the Capitol, demonstrators overwhelmed the police by their sheer mass and made their way to the east steps.  When the police retreated into the building, the crowd followed.  At 2:10, protesters/provocateurs managed to get by the police on the west side of the Capitol and began breaking windows.

At 2:12, Ray Epps texted his nephew boasting that he had “orchestrated” events at the Capitol.  He certainly did his fair share.  At 2:13, Trump tweeted, “I am asking for everyone at the Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember WE are the party of law and order.”  In truth, Trump had no effective way of communicating with the crowd, most of whom had no cell coverage and no leisure to check their tweets.

At 4:17 P.M., Trump said on a posted video, “You have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt.”  Ashli Babbitt had been shot and killed more than an hour earlier.  Rosanne Boyland was still alive, but she never did get to hear Trump’s plea.

Big Tech saw to that.  Twitter promptly applied a warning label, saying, “The claim of election fraud is disputed, and this tweet can’t be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence.”  Facebook blocked the post as well.

No, Nancy, the Capitol was your responsibility.  It is hard to tell where incompetence leaves off and conspiracy begins, but you’re not going to find the answer if you don’t look.

Jack Cashill’s new book, Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6, is now available for purchase.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/06/sorry_nancy_trump_had_no_role_in_inciting_the_j6_riot.html