Barely a few days after far-right Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) blamed Trump for creating a “dangerous setting” for the U.S. Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, the watchdog Twitter account Patriot Takes unearthed an interview in which Cawthorn directly blamed Trump for the violence of that day.
The interview — which ran in Smoky Mountain News, a North Carolina publication, shortly after the riots — had the interviewee asking Cawthorn if Trump’s “baseless claims that the election was rigged or stolen… played a role” in the violence that took place during the riots.
Cawthorn’s response, “I think you’d have to be pretty ignorant to say that they didn’t play a role in it.”
Five people died during the January 6 riot, and Trump’s supporters injured roughly 140 police officers. The police injuries included a broken spine, a lost eye, lost fingers, brain damage, and multiple cases of PTSD. Four Capitol Police officers have died by suicide since the riots.
The rioters ransacked the Capitol, shattered windows while trying to access congressional chambers, smeared feces in the hallway, and stole computer equipment, potentially constituting a national security breach.
In a separate tweet, Patriot Takes also unearthed a video of far-right “America First caucus” member Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) calling the violence of January 6 rioters “absolutely indefensible” and saying they should be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Boebert has since joined her equally anti-LGBTQ colleague Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene in calling the rioters and insurrectionists “political prisoners.”
The representatives’ words are just two more logs on the raging bonfire of evidence of the violence and collusion that occurred on that day. The bonfire display will continue burning in public view as the January 6 commission’s hearings continue on TV.