While millions of Americans were enjoying a hopefully relaxing Memorial Day weekend, conservatives were doing the opposite of chilling. For one thing, there was an actual, QAnon-adjacent conference, which featured things like disgraced lawyer Sidney Powell claiming Trump will be back in office and also disgraced brief Trump staffer Michael Flynn agreeing with a call for a Myanmar-like coup in the U.S. (Flynn tried to deny saying words that were clearly captured on video.)
So much alarming stuff went down there that one matter almost fell through the cracks: Louie Gohmert, the Texas representative who rode into power on the waves of the Tea Party (remember that?), became the latest conservative to downplay the events of Jan. 6.
As per The Washington Post, Gohmert — who went viral last December when one of his teeth fell out during a press conference dedicated to spreading 2020 election lies — appeared at the “For God & Country Patriot Roundup” over the weekend. On Saturday he addressed the crowd, claiming that “it wasn’t just right-wing extremists” at the failed insurrection, which resulted in five deaths, plus two suicides after. His words seemed to parrot the long-debunked claim that among those storming the Capitol were left-wing activists posting as Trumpists.
But there was more. He also suggested a bloody attempt to overturn the election was no big whoop. “Some of us think Pearl Harbor was the worst attack on democracy, some of us think 9/11 was the worst attack,” Gohmert said. “Some of us think that those things were worse attacks on democracy.”
Gohmert also reportedly posed with a QAnon podcaster who bragged that he’d been at the Capitol siege.
The lawmaker has since tried to distance himself from the event, especially in light of Flynn’s inflammatory comments. But he still tried to downplay the events of the bloody day, as conservatives like Tucker Carlson have done already. And Gohmert will almost certainly not be the last to try and rewrite history.
(Via The Post)