Top Republican Congresswoman Blasted for Calling Jan 6 Rioters ‘Hostages’
Stefanik is parroting Donald Trump's language
The top congresswoman in the House Republican leadership is being condemned across the political spectrum for repeating Donald Trump's rhetoric calling those violent supporters of Trump's who are being prosecuted and convicted of storming the US Capitol Building in 2021, “hostages.”
Three years on from the insurrection of January 6, many Republicans continue to try to whitewash the violent and illegal actions of Trump supporters who attacked Congress in an attempt to keep Trump in power illegally.
As part of that revisionism, Republicans have been referring to those charges and prosecuted under the law for their actions on January 6, as political prisoners and “hostages.”
That's a term Trump, himself, has begun using. And now Rep Elise Stefanik, of New York, the third-ranking member of House Republican leadership, is doing likewise.
More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes in the riot, ranging from misdemeanor offenses like trespassing to felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. Roughly 730 people have pleaded guilty to charges, while another roughly 170 have been convicted of at least one charge at a trial decided by a judge or a jury, according to an Associated Press database.
Stefanik called January 6 criminals “hostages,” during an on-camera interview Sunday on the NBC News program, Meet The Press.
She was immediately condemned for the language.
“It’s outrageous. It’s disgusting. If you go and you look at what individuals have been convicted for, who are incarcerated, you’ll find, extensively, these are people who were involved in violence against police officers, in the assault on the Capitol, and it’s disgraceful for Donald Trump to be saying what he’s saying and then for those who are attempting to enable him or attempting to further their own political careers, to repeat it,” said former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, who helped lead the House investigation into what happened on January 6 and related actions to try to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election. “It’s a disgrace. You cannot say you are a member of a party that believes in the rule of law. You can’t say that you’re pro-law enforcement if you go out and say these people are, quote, hostages. It’s disgraceful.”
On the other side of the political spectrum, Democratic Rep Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, called the use of the term “hostage,” insulting to actual hostages.
“Well, obviously, it’s a major insult, an affront to the families of actual hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza right now,” Raskin said. “But, look, something struck me yesterday, it was sort of the dog that did not bark. The Republicans released hundreds and hundreds of hours of TV security tape from January 6, they had months to examine it, they haven’t come up with a single shot which purports to capture an Antifa fighter or an FBI agent, inciting the insurrection — nothing — and yet they’re still out there spreading their propaganda and disinformation about how it was really Antifa and FBI agents, which, of course, would make it strange to argue that all these people should be released and Trump’s gonna pardon them.
“Why would he want to pardon all these Antifa fighters? So there’s no logic in their presentation. It really is characteristic of what you get from authoritarian and fascist political parties,” he added.
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