{"id":97469,"date":"2024-01-06T04:17:42","date_gmt":"2024-01-06T04:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=97469"},"modified":"2024-01-06T04:17:42","modified_gmt":"2024-01-06T04:17:42","slug":"trumps-crowds-dont-want-to-move-on-from-jan-6-they-want-retribution-for-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=97469","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s crowds don\u2019t want to move on from Jan. 6. They want retribution for him."},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Politics<\/p>\n

MASON CITY, Iowa \u2014 Donning a red puffer coat and a \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d hat, Barbara LaGow smoked a cigarette while waiting in a long line on a cold night to hear Donald Trump speak.<\/p>\n

The 58-year-old had driven more than two hours from Minnesota on Friday to come to the former president\u2019s rally at the North Iowa Events Center. But it was worth it, she said. Trump was \u201ccheated out of the last election.\u201d She wanted to show support for him ahead of the coming one.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s swing through Iowa marked the unofficial start of his final caucus sprint. But there was a broader, more meaningful backdrop to Friday\u2019s event, one underscored by LaGow\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

The former president was delivering remarks on the eve of the three year anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection that he helped instigate before leaving office. For a short while, that day seemed as if it might be his final political chapter, a transgression that Republicans would simply not tolerate. Instead, for LaGow and others here to watch Trump, it became a source of sympathy for the man.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no insurrection. I believe he\u2019s being framed. I really don\u2019t believe he did anything he shouldn\u2019t have done. He asked people to go peacefully protest. And that was it,\u201d she said. \u201cI believe the FBI did have something to do with it \u2026 The whole thing just smacks. It smells bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaGow is part of a significant swath of the Republican electorate who believes that Jan. 6 was likely part of an effort to politically harm Trump. A recent Washington Post-UMD poll found 34 percent of Republicans falsely believe<\/a> the FBI organized the Capitol attack.<\/p>\n

Not all of Trump\u2019s supporters in Iowa were willing to go quite so far as to excuse the rioters. But none said they believed Trump shouldered any of the blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no insurrection on his part at all,\u201d said Gayle Lasley, 69, who drove an hour to attend her first Trump rally and plans to support him in the caucus next week. \u201cIt was highly exaggerated. I think some people did some things they shouldn\u2019t have and those who were arrested,\u201d but added that it\u2019s been taken \u201cway too far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, for his part, has pushed conspiracies around Jan. 6 repeatedly. At an earlier rally in Sioux City on Friday, he declared<\/a> that \u201cthere was Antifa and there was FBI,\u201d at the riot. He also said that those who had been imprisoned for their roles that day were \u201chostages.\u201d Nobody, he added, \u201chas been treated ever in history so badly as those people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who attended Trump\u2019s rallies on Friday took their cues from him, including Ryan Sloth, 46, who lives thirty minutes outside of Mason City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched it on TV that day, and I said this is a complete joke. I could tell from the beginning that this was a setup. Plain as day. There\u2019s no way all those officers, no cops stopped it,\u201d Sloth said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s infuriating to see those people still in jail. If we were there, we would\u2019ve been checking things out. People are still in jail for that. It\u2019s a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for who he believes set Trump up, Sloth had his suspicions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democratic Party,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know who in particular, but somebody got the plans. I don\u2019t know who\u2019s pulling the strings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another man, who would only reveal his first name, Michael, was more specific with his accusations. \u201cIt was all a set-up,\u201d he said. \u201c[Joe] Biden planted people in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whitewashing of Jan. 6 has been a yearslong project of Trump and his allies. And it\u2019s been one of the more central elements of his race to win back the presidency.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s first rally of the 2024 presidential cycle in Waco, Texas opened with him putting his hand over his heart as \u201cJustice for All,\u201d played over loudspeakers. The song is a mashup of the national anthem sung by a choir of Jan. 6 defendants and Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. As the music played, footage of people storming the Capitol was projected on jumbo screens behind the ex-president.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur people love those people,\u201d Trump said to a cheering Waco crowd when the song ended. He hasn\u2019t let up since.<\/p>\n

Trump, who is facing four criminal prosecutions including two cases related to his actions on Jan. 6, has vowed to pardon a \u201clarge portion\u201d of the Jan. 6 defendants if he returns to the White House. He turned Ashli Babbitt, a woman who was fatally shot while invading the U.S. Capitol, into a MAGA martyr \u2014 one who he frequently references at his rallies and events. And he has claimed the \u201cunfair\u201d imprisonment of Jan. 6 rioters is an example of how the Biden administration has weaponized the justice system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people who love our country protest in Washington, they become hostages and prisoners unfairly imprisoned for long periods of time,\u201d Trump said at a rally in Reno, Nevada, in December. \u201cWe are a third world nation that has weaponized its law enforcement against the opposing political party like never, ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s eagerness to recast Jan. 6 rather than bury its memory has agitated elected Republicans, many of whom look on that day with anger and shame. But its potency with the party\u2019s base is hard to dispute. Few of Trump\u2019s primary opponents have attacked him consistently or with vigor for his actions leading up to or on that day. Only a handful of congressional Republicans supported his impeachment over it. Virtually all of them have been critical of the criminal cases he faces because of it.<\/p>\n

The dynamics are wholly different on the Democratic side of the aisle, where operatives and candidates are eager to see the coming campaign turn into a relitigation of that day. Hours before Trump spoke on Friday, Biden delivered a speech of his own. The setting, Valley Forge, and content were designed specifically to place Jan. 6 and broader threats to democracy at the center of the race ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe nearly lost America \u2014 lost it all,\u201d Biden said. \u201cWe all know who Donald Trump is,\u201d he added. \u201cThe question we have to answer is who are we?\u201d<\/p>\n

Meridith McGraw contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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