At Least the Fact Check Was an Inside Job
PolitiFact Swamps Ramaswamy Debate Statement with Official Sources
At the recent Republican debate, Vivek Ramaswamy – as is his wont – went off on a bit of a tear.
He said he was the candidate who could “speak truth to power” and followed that up with a list of verboten “conspiracy theories” that he thought may actually have something to them.
He mentioned that the government covered up Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11. This is something he has said before and is – or should be – a question for genuine debate. Originally, the government said there was no involvement but more recent litigation has created legitimate doubt about that assertion. created legitimate doubt about that assertion.
Ramaswamy also said it appears the “great replacement theory” could be a “basic statement of the Democratic platform.”
The theory – which holds that governments around the world have been deliberately diminishing their own population in order to replace them with cheaper labor and/or a more malleable immigrant populace - is widely condemned as nativist and racist. However, the Biden opening of the border to pretty much anyone from anywhere and the very intentional encouragement of massive immigration into countries like Germany that were facing lower citizen birth rates and growing labor shortage does lend a certain amount of credence to the concept.
That is not to say it is correct, that what’s happening now is any more than just a typical easing of standards to import cheap labor - more of a great addition theory in practice. But the fact that it is virulently branded as racist – the protection word so often used by the ever-growing corpo-statist governing class – in and of itself piques the interest of a public that has been lied to so often for so long.
A side note – if you Wikipedia “great replacement theory” you will find that it’s political origins go back to the anti-immigrant movements born in the United States at “about 1900.”
So anti-immigrant feeling in the United States only started in 1900? Tell that to the three million Irish who who flooded over and were met not only with scorn, “no dogs or Irish” signs, and even the creation of an entire national political party to stop them. In other words, an odd – and intentional, one assumes, because Irish people are white – omission.
Ramaswamy also said the 2020 election was “stolen by Big Tech.” Again, considering the revelations of the Twitter Files, etc. regarding the “censorship-industrial complex,” the election day exit polling that specifically showed that if the Hunter Biden laptop story had not been throttled Trump probably would have won the election, and the injection of hundreds of millions of dollars of Silicon Valley money into the election system itself, one can see why general public confidence in the result is a bit shaky.
Even putting all of that aside, there’s this:
The 2020 election was quite possibly the most unusual election in the nation’s history. Barriers put in place years ago to try to ensure secure and accurate voting were obliterated, massive numbers of ballot were mailed out practically willy-nilly, the unconscionable practice of ballot harvesting was normalized in many states, counts were stopped and started and dragged on for days and on and on. Just these undisputed facts alone are enough for intelligent reasonable involved citizens to legitimately wonder if the election was truly fair and honest.
And now we come to January 6 and PolitiFact’s “pants of fire” fact check of Ramaswamy saying “"Why am I the only person on the stage at least who can say that Jan. 6 now does look like it was an inside job?”
Was it an “inside job?” Very doubtful, if the term is intended to mean that a person or persons specifically got together to plan out a crime knowing it was a crime, like a bank teller, a branch manager, and the security guard robbing the bank they work at.
But if meant as wondering if the events of January 6 were at least in part instigated, massaged, abetted, and taken advantage of by people on the federal payroll – beyond President Trump and opposed to President Trump – then the answer appears to be a very definite “yes.”
PolitiFact has none of the queasiness that comes with any lingering doubt, though:
The Jan. 6 claim is extraordinarily egregious.
Numerous investigations have found the U.S. Capitol attack was orchestrated and executed by people who supported Donald Trump’s presidency and believed or pushed false claims that the 2020 election was "stolen." Although evidence shows FBI informants were at the Capitol that day, none shows the FBI or its informants instigated the violence that followed.
Evidence from court documents shows, person by person, who ransacked the Capitol and fought with police officers. The rioters’ goal was preventing Congress from accepting the results of the election showing that Trump had lost. Officials have charged more than 1,200 defendants, more than two-thirds of whom have pleaded guilty or been found guilty at trial so far.
Either way, though, whatever the cause, what happened on January 6 was not a coup attempt or an insurrection. It was an angry stupid riot that played perfectly into the hands of the Democrat Party and the uni-party DC blob.
That fact, and the governmental events since, have actually bolstered the case of anyone who leans towards the “inside job” theory.
The House committee investigation was a travesty, the videos of the events – those that have been released – show at least in part Capitol police officers practically helping the “invading horde,” and the indictment of Trump on federal charges for instigating the “insurrection” all point to January 6 as being – if not an “inside job” - then at least an extremely unnaturally perfectly convenient way to crush anti-DC blob dissent throughout the nation and for the former president’s enemies to get him out of the way once and for all.
Hence the suspicion. That, and whom PolitiFact chose to support their “pants on fire” Ramaswamy claim. Here’s the list of the providers of the facts PolitiFact relied upon:
C-SPAN, Secretary Mayorkas and FBI Director Wray testify on global threats, Part 1, Nov. 15, 2023
New York Times, F.B.I. had Informants in Proud Boys, court papers suggest, Nov. 14, 2023
New York Times, Among those who marched Into the Capitol on Jan. 6: An F.B.I. informant, Sept. 25, 2021
AP, Proud Boys’ Tarrio guilty of Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy, May 4, 2023
HuffPost, Clay Higgins claims ‘ghost buses’ brought FBI informants to Washington on Jan. 6, Nov. 15, 2023
Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, Final report, Dec. 22, 2022
U.S. Senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs majority staff report, Planned in Plain sight a review of the intelligence failures in advance of January 6th, 2021, June 2023
Select January 6th Committee, Final Report and Supporting Materials Collection, Dec. 22, 2022
Washington Post, Tough-talking captain in Louisiana sheriff’s office resigns after calling black suspects ‘animals’ in viral video, Feb. 29, 2016
San Antonio Express-News, The Go-To Guy; Stealth cars on patrol, Aug. 2, 2009
FBI media office, Statement to PolitiFact, Nov. 17, 2023
The Washington Post, Tough-talking captain in Louisiana sheriff’s office resigns after calling black suspects ‘animals’ in viral video, Feb. 29, 2016
Graphic Designs International, Why ghost police car graphics are becoming so popular, June 10, 2021
WUSA 9, Montgomery County Police deploy hard-to-see 'ghost cruisers' to catch dangerous drivers, July 28, 2023
Newsweek, Proud Boys attorney wants to unmask informants during Jan. 6 trial, April 6, 2023
Committee on the Judiciary, Steven D’Antuono, June 7, 2023
U.S. District Court District of Columbia, US vs Nordean et al, Motion to compel all confidential human sources of homeland security April 5, 2023
Justice Department, 34 Months Since the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol, Nov. 6, 2023
PolitiFact, No, the Capitol insurrection was not staged by antifa, Jan. 8, 2021
PolitiFact, There’s no proof antifa stormed the Capitol. The rumor spread quickly anyway, Jan. 7, 2021
PolitiFact, How new Jan. 6 revelations on Ray Epps, others undercut Tucker Carlson’s FBI conspiracy theory, Jan. 18, 2022
PolitiFact, Ray Epps didn’t tell Congress he orchestrated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. Here’s what he did say, Jan. 6, 2023
PolitiFact, Tucker Carlson’s conspiracy theory about FBI and Jan. 6 continues to be wrong, Nov. 4, 2021
PolitiFact, Tucker Carlson film falsely claims Jan. 6 is ‘pretext to strip millions’ of ‘constitutional rights,’ Nov. 2, 2021
PolitiFact, Yes, Jan. 6 Capitol assault was an "armed insurrection," Feb. 15, 2021
PolitiFact, Ask PolitiFact: Did Capitol Police let mob of Trump supporters in? Jan. 7, 2021
PolitiFact, The 2021 Lie of the Year: Lies about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and its significance, Dec. 15, 2021
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Thirty-four months since the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, accessed Nov. 6, 2023
PolitiFact, GOP Texas House candidate repeats false claim that FBI agents instigated Jan. 6 attack on US Capitol, Feb. 7, 2022
C-SPAN, House Homeland Security Hearing on global terror threats, Nov. 15, 2022
The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Capitol rioters feel betrayed by Trump, lawyer says, Jan. 22, 2021
The Anti-Defamation League, Three Percenters, accessed Nov. 20, 2023
The Intercept, Trevor Aaronson, accessed Nov. 20, 2023
PolitiFact, A day of crisis at the US Capitol, fact-checked, Jan. 6, 2021
Government Accountability Office, Capitol attack: Federal agencies identified some threats, but did not fully process and share information prior to Jan. 6, 2021, February 2023
The New York Times, Final report from the Jan. 6 committee, Dec. 22, 2022
The New York Times, F.B.I. had informants in Proud Boys, court papers suggest, Nov. 14, 2022
The New York Times, In Proud Boys Jan. 6 sedition trial, F.B.I. informants abound, March 24, 2023
The New York Times, Among those who marched into the Capitol on Jan. 6: an F.B.I. informant, Sept. 25, 2021
PolitiFact, Misinformation and the Jan. 6 insurrection: When ‘patriot warriors’ were fed lies, June 30, 2021
U.S. Justice Department Office of Public Affairs, Four additional Oath Keepers sentenced for seditious conspiracy related to U.S. Capitol breach, June 2, 2023
PolitiFact, What the Jan. 6 hearings revealed about Trump’s actions before and after the Capitol attack, Dec. 9, 2022
NPR, Proud Boys leaders sentenced to a combined 32 years for Jan. 6 riot, Aug. 31, 2023
Clay Higgins congressional website, Higgins warns conservatives against "Falling for the trap the DOJ/FBI has set," June 11, 2023
KALB, Congressman Clay Higgins asks judge for leniency for Jan. 6 rioter, Nov. 13, 2023
Louisiana Illuminator, Rep. Clay Higgins posts cryptic tweet after Trump indictment, June 9, 2023
Obviously, you don’t have to click on every link – of course, feel free to.
The point of showing the entire list is to ask a question: notice a pattern?
It’s government sources – who of course would never lie about anything related to January 6.
It’s the House committee itself, a committee that refused to allow any rebuttal testimony and what “bombshell” testimony it did evince was almost always immediately shown to be false.
It’s Homeland Security Sec. Mayorkas and FBI chief Wray, two utterly compromised individuals.
It’s the New York Times and the Washington Post, scriveners of the deep state.
It’s themselves.
And that’s it, except for the last three citations which were meant to show that particular congressman as a lunatic.
Is Ramaswamy right? Is every source noted above perfectly correct? Or is it somewhere in between, a between space that more than 1,000 mostly hapless people have found themselves in over the past four years?
But instead of delving a bit into even the possibility of overlap, of nuance, of “context” as it often calls for in statements from others, PolitiFact – as it almost always does – asked the suspects if they were guilty and declared as a fact that they were not guilty simply because they said they were not guilty.
Judge, jury, and…releaser.
A very artfully worded fact check. Especially this: "Either way, though, whatever the cause, what happened on January 6 was not a coup attempt or an insurrection. It was an angry stupid riot that played perfectly into the hands of the Democrat Party and the uni-party DC blob."