Of all the faces and fashions seen smashing their way through the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, the image of Jacob Chansley, a.k.a. the QAnon Shaman, is undoubtedly the most memorable. With his David Puddy-like face paint, horned fur hat, and spear in hand, the 34-year-old Arizonian seemed to go out of his way to take center stage in every damning video and photo taken during the January 6th attacks, but now he’s blaming the media for making him the poster boy for the MAGA coup (just as his lawyer blamed Americans in general for making Chansley the way he is).
But on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the events of January 6, Chansley is blaming everyone and everything that isn’t his satanic Davy Crockett hat for turning him into “the face” of the Capitol insurrection. Speaking from an Oklahoma federal prison, where he’s currently serving a 41-month sentence for the part he played in the attacks, Chansley got on the horn with Inside Edition’s Lisa Guerrero, with help from his mom, who had him on speakerphone (awwww).
When asked whether he had any regrets about his actions on that infamous day, Chansley claimed that he actually tried to calm down the crowd on more than one occasion:
“In retrospect, one thing I can say that I regret is not working to ensure that there was far more peace on that day. Had I known what was going to happen, I would have stepped in before any barricades were breached. I actually tried to, on more than one occasion, calm the crowd. But it just didn’t work.”
Since the bulk of the footage we have seen of Chansley involves him howling, and we know that he left a threatening message to Mike Pence on the Senate dais, the idea of him actually trying to quell the storm of sedition doesn’t quite fit. Even Guerrero challenged him on this, noting: “You’re a grown man. You chose to go to the Capitol that day. Many people look at you as the face of Jan. 6 and are appalled. What is your response to those people?”
Yet again, Chansley wasn’t ready to take the blame, telling Guerrero: “As far as being ‘the face,’ that’s something that the media made me. I didn’t make myself anything.” He did, however, choose to dress like a feral animal and illegally thrash through the halls of one of our most government’s most sacred institutions.
But what does Chansley’s mom think? She claims that then-president Donald Trump invited everyone to the Capitol, and feels “really passionate about how wrong I think it is that he is even doing any time at all.”
While more than 700 people have been arrested for their actions on January 6th, the FBI claims there are still approximately 350 additional suspects they are trying to find to face prosecution. None, however, is likely to look as familiar as Chansley.
(Via Inside Edition)