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00:02:24.000We wanted to have a conversation about January 6th and what really happened that day and kind of getting to the bottom of it and building it out and trying to separate fact from fiction.
00:02:41.000And as we said, we don't support the destruction of property.
00:02:47.000We definitely don't support anyone that assaulted police officers.
00:02:52.000The misrepresentation of what happened on that day, though, has been blatant and it's been intentional to try and strengthen the security state and to try to make the regime untouchable.
00:03:08.000And tomorrow, you're going to see that in great detail.
00:03:12.000In great detail, tomorrow, you are going to see pageantry that is going to try to compare basically what happened on January 6th, one year ago, like the invasion of Normandy.
00:03:24.000Play Cut 17 CNN panel covers January 6th, literally like it's the storming of Normandy Beach, Play Cut 17.
00:03:33.000This was a pre-vaccination moment, and that distance, coupled with the fact that we see active attempts to deny the reality of what occurred, have sort of prevented people from realizing what happened that day.
00:03:45.000You know, there's a bit of an informal network of reporters who've been through it that day and are still coping with that.
00:03:51.000And we're all still dealing with that and feeling like we need to convey to others how serious it was.
00:03:57.000I mean, one hallmark of post-traumatic stress disorder is sort of having flashbacks and almost eerily clear memories.
00:04:04.000And for me, the single one that really haunts me, I was there at the ellipse.
00:04:09.000And, you know, in the final 120 words of his speech, that's when after over an hour, he told the crowd to march to the Capitol.
00:04:17.000He's acting as if that was 9-11, and that's what they're trying to do.
00:04:20.000Okay, so with us is someone who knows this very well.
00:04:22.000And he's wrote about, he's written about it at great length.
00:04:26.000And I have a lot of questions for him.
00:04:27.000That is Ben Whitgarten from RealClear Investigations, RealClearPolitics.com.
00:04:32.000Ben, welcome to the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:04:35.000Charlie, thanks so much for having me.
00:04:40.000Was this an insurrection on January the 6th?
00:04:44.000I'm not sure how it meets the definition of an insurrection.
00:04:49.000If you look at the size, scope, and nature of the violence and destruction and how widespread it was that took place that day, something that we've highlighted at Real Clear Investigations with a database comparing in many dimensions what transpired on January 6th to the summer riots of 2020.
00:05:09.000The summer riots of 2020 were far more widespread, far more violent, and led to vastly more destruction, property damage, and worse, making them completely incomparable.
00:05:22.000The notion that what transpired, as shameful as the actions were, as pathetic as the actions were, and as much as the worst of the violent actions ought to be prosecuted to the fullest extent, the notion that this somehow is comparable to a 9-11 or Pearl Harbor or the depths of the Civil War,
00:05:41.000I think speaks to a disingenuous effort to try to use the worst of those actions and exploit them in a bid to cast up to half the country as insurrectionists or their would-be co-conspirators and use that purported threat to justify a whole of society crackdown on dissenters.
00:06:01.000And I argued that a week after January 6th, that the Federalists, that I was concerned about the fact that this would be used, this would be exploited to accelerate a war on wrongthink on this country.
00:06:16.000And none of that is to condone or dismiss or downplay the worst of what transpired that day, but it is to say that it's been exploited to devastating ends for the rights of Americans of all political stripes.
00:06:28.000So you have here on your article, RealClearInvestigations.com, you compare the 2021 January 6th event to Floyd Apalooza to the 2017 inauguration riot.
00:06:40.000And basically, police officers assaulted and injured during the George Floyd riots, 2037, 140 on the Capitol riot.
00:06:53.000Non-officers who died, Ashley Babbitt and three others, but let's just stop there.
00:06:59.000So, Ben, tomorrow we are going to hear this repetition.
00:07:03.000It was a deadly insurrection, a deadly insurrection, a deadly insurrection.
00:07:08.000Well, the deaths that happened that day, no one, the only person who died at the Capitol, if my memory serves me correctly, my research is Ashley Babbitt.
00:07:17.000Other people died afterwards of other unrelated injuries.
00:07:24.000Yeah, Ashley Babbitt was the only person killed at the Capitol.
00:07:28.000There were several others who participated in the protest who died that day.
00:07:36.000The causes have generally been attributed to sort of medical reasons or a drug overdose.
00:07:41.000There's debate over whether the deaths of one of those individuals really was a drug overdose or not.
00:07:46.000But to your point, from the very start, the narrative was cast that, for example, Officer Sicknick was bludgeoned to death by a fire extinguisher.
00:07:55.000In fact, that made it into the impeachment proceedings and impeachment number two against President Trump, a proven false.
00:08:02.000As you noted, of the other officers who were there that day, who perished, there were several suicides weeks subsequent to that event.
00:08:12.000So there's been an attempt to link anyone who was there who happened to die in its vicinity to the actions of the protesters.
00:08:19.000And that simply has not been borne out.
00:08:21.000And to go back to your initial point about was this an insurrection, the fascinating thing is that while the Biden administration talks about it as an insurrection, a terrorist attack, prosecutors have talked about it in any number of cases associated with January 6th.
00:08:37.000Defendants, no one has been charged with insurrection, sedition, treason, terrorism.
00:08:45.000So that's not the case they're making in a court of law.
00:08:47.000And in fact, judges who are very sympathetic to the effort to pursue January 6th participants to the fullest extent themselves have lamented the fact that the government is not making the case it claims to be making.
00:08:59.000And that's with the Biden Justice Department prosecuting these cases.
00:09:03.000In fact, the quote from one of the judges overseeing these cases, I believe it's Beryl Howell in the DC Circuit, a very senior court there, if not the senior most judge on that court, is you're, and I believe this is a direct quote or very close paraphrase, you're charging the crime of the century with Class B misdemeanors.
00:09:21.000And the vast majority of charges are in fact misdemeanor charges that have been put forth.
00:09:26.000There's been jail time for those sentenced for less than half of those who have been sentenced.
00:09:30.000And the more serious crimes are still to be adjudicated.
00:09:34.000But the public portrayal of this does not match the legal portrayal, or as I've termed it in any number of pieces.
00:09:42.000The legal prosecution cannot achieve what the political persecution is being attempted with the January 6th Select Committee and in the Court of Public Opinion.
00:09:52.000The Democrats are straining to make the case that the prosecutors cannot make.
00:09:57.000And that's before we get to issues like the 14,000 hours of footage that we can't see, the disingenuousness, as you noted, about the deaths that transpired, the fact that not one person charged as being at the Capitol had a firearm at the time of the Capitol, but this is portrayed as a murderous armed insurrection.
00:10:16.000And the like, again, none of it to downplay what transpired, but to show the disingenuousness of the portrayal of it for nefarious and pernicious political ends that threaten the rights of everyone.
00:10:28.000We're supposed to have equal justice under the law.
00:10:31.000So if the standard is trespassing at the Capitol, gets you a parking ticket, like that's what happens with BLM or these eco-terrorists that come along every couple of years, or what's that?
00:13:53.000Yeah, so the authorities, of course, we're talking about the Capitol complex here.
00:13:57.000So there are cameras everywhere covering every inch of that property to the extent that January 6th was 9-11 or Pearl Harbor or the worst of the Civil War.
00:14:07.000We ought to be able to see it with our own eyes beyond the footage that was disseminated on that day and in perpetuity since.
00:14:16.000The authorities have sat on over 14,000 hours worth of footage from the Capitol complex.
00:14:21.000And in at least one case, an accused has pressed the government and actually news organizations, mainstream ones, so-called, to their credit themselves, pushed authorities to actually release the associated footage that one of the accused sought to see precisely because there's an argument that there might be exculpatory evidence in that footage.
00:14:43.000And what we saw in the footage was essentially in one particular sector of the Capitol, the doors being opened up and people essentially waltzing right in completely unmolested, not in a violent fashion, incidentally.
00:14:56.000And potentially, we've heard reports of several hundred people who walked in, did not engage in violent behavior, but walked right through the open doors of the Capitol.
00:15:06.000And even Christopher Wray, by the way, has talked about the fact that there are different cohorts on January 6th, and some of them did just waltz right in.
00:15:15.000The question is, what are you hiding in the 14,000 plus hours of footage?
00:15:18.000If this day was as devastating as has been portrayed, then why would you not put forth that footage?
00:15:25.000Another thing you alluded to were some of these unindicted co-conspirators.
00:15:29.000And when Merrick Garland was asked about this by Congressman Massey, he essentially deferred and said, you know, we don't talk about an ongoing case, except when they are talking about ongoing cases.
00:15:40.000And they have prejudged what transpired on January 6th.
00:15:44.000The fact of the matter is, like, we should know what is the deal with the informants that have been reported upon in the New York Times and elsewhere.
00:15:51.000Should know, as you mentioned, what is Ray App, what was Ray Eps' role that day and some of the other unindicted co-conspirators that Revolver has done really exceptional reporting on.
00:16:01.000I mean, these are legitimate questions.
00:16:02.000It doesn't make you a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists when it's reported in the New York Times that there were informants on site.
00:16:10.000And we know that just months prior, this Gretchen Whitmer case in Michigan, there was, I think, one informant for every single accused in this purported plot to go after Gretchen Whitmer.
00:16:22.000Now, they want to portray you as a conspiracy theorist for asking those questions, but the obfuscation, the obscuring, the unwillingness to be transparent, especially when we're talking about a law enforcement and national security apparatus that for the last four years, we know played all sorts of games when it comes to redacting language, stonewalling individuals, stonewalling on testimony and the like.
00:16:45.000They have made it such that you have to work under the assumption that there's likely something political here.
00:16:49.000And you know that this is the most hyper-politicized event that we've arguably ever seen, at least in modern history, certainly.
00:16:57.000So all of those questions, the 14,000 hours, why these unindicted co-conspirators, when you have the greatest investigation since 9-11 and maybe ever in American history, according to the Justice Department, using the full force of the national security law enforcement intelligence apparatus, we ought to get answers to all these questions.
00:17:14.000There's nothing that ought to be hidden.
00:17:16.000It all ought to be there on the table for the American people to see transparently and openly.
00:17:21.000So has any of the other media, New York Times played around with this a little bit, have they been at all kind of bothered by the fact that the federal government might have had people on payroll within this?
00:17:33.000It just seems to kind of just be this non-issue.
00:17:36.000I mean, I remember when the media used to really care about this.
00:17:40.000Seems like they're just nothing more than extensions of the security state at this point.
00:17:44.000Yeah, you know, Glenn Greenwald and Lee Smith from differing perspectives have both done really good work, I think, to demonstrate the fact that, you know, the media has always been, or the intelligence apparatus, for example, has always sought to use the media as a conduit to craft narratives that are useful to it.
00:18:04.000But what it has fundamentally changed is that the left, which dominates the media, used to be hostile towards the national security and intelligence apparatus.
00:18:12.000And now, as you noted, they're essentially an extension of it, a mouthpiece of it.
00:18:16.000And in some cases, the former senior level national security and intelligence officials themselves are the very contributors propagating the narratives on the programs.
00:18:25.000And we've seen this and we've covered this extensively at Real Clear Investigations with the Steo dossier and RussiaGate writ large.
00:18:32.000There's never necessarily been a time that I can recall in American history where the press has been so uniquely aligned on a political basis with what the national security intelligence and law enforcement apparatus is up to.
00:18:44.000And that's crossing a very dangerous Rubicon for the country.
00:19:06.000And part of them being canceled, they want to give you the lowest price yet.
00:19:10.000So you can get the lowest price in the history of MyPillow for their classic standard MyPillow, regularly $69.98, now only $19.98 with the promo code.
00:19:20.000They also have queen size, regularly $79.98 and $24.98 with a promo code or king size, usually $89.98, only $29.98 with your promo code.
00:20:03.000And apparently the FBI, the DOJ, etc., have no idea either.
00:20:08.000And it's kind of striking in some sense that we have nothing on that, given how we've seen the pervasive, the pervasive powers that law enforcement and intelligence can use and have used to pursue everyone and their mother and their grandmother, really, when it comes to people who were on the ground in the Capitol or around the Capitol on January 6th.
00:20:30.000And also, let's not forget, pipe bombs represent a weapon more severe in terms of the damage that can be put forth from it than anything that was recovered on anyone who was charged as being in the Capitol.
00:20:42.000As I mentioned earlier in the show, there are five people who were slapped with firearm charges associated with January 6th, but none of them on their person in the Capitol.
00:20:51.000So it's really remarkable that we had this threat there.
00:20:54.000And we now know, incidentally, that there were federal assets on the ground on January 5th and then on January 6th who were supposedly looking at the pipe bomb threat.
00:21:06.000It's very remarkable and very curious that there's been so little focus on it.
00:21:10.000And again, it just makes you ask the question, why?
00:21:12.000And of course, the problem today is that literally, figuratively, and in some cases, almost literally, asking that question why about any of myriad issues is liable to get one canceled on social media, even if what is askable changes on a dime.
00:21:30.000And more broadly, it gets one ostracized in civil society, if not booted off payment processing platforms and people's livelihoods destroyed.
00:21:38.000And that's, you know, again, that's what I've argued from the start is that January 6th served as the catalyzing event to justify this onslaught on anyone who dares even question anything that might challenge what the official narrative of the ruling class is.
00:21:54.000And we're going to be dealing with the damage of that that's going to be infinitely greater over the long run than the worst of what transpired on the 6th.
00:22:01.000It's the Gulf of Tonkin for a domestic war against conservatives.
00:22:04.000And what's amazing about the pipe bomb incident, no suspects, no updates, zero information.
00:22:10.000Now, we know, thanks to Revolver.news, and we're going to have Darren Beattie on the program tomorrow, who's just been phenomenal on this.
00:22:17.000He's done such exceptional journalism, and you have too.
00:22:19.000There's a small network, Julie Kelly, as well, of people that have actually decided to look into things and then just tell the truth wherever the facts lead you.
00:22:26.000And I think it was Revolver that found this image of some guy sitting on a park bench with a phone right near basically the guy that planted the pipe bomb, right?
00:22:37.000And so we've been able to, the federal government has been able to triangulate using SIM card information down to like the square inch of a person that was in the Capitol and say, okay, this person was in the Rotunda.
00:22:51.000We were able to kind of triangulate their phone and they use it in charging documents then of these people.
00:22:57.000So we know that that technology exists, right?
00:23:00.000So they go to the cell phone carriers.
00:23:16.000And this points to, you know, the question of, is there an equal and impartial application of justice?
00:23:23.000And the Justice Department and Merrick Garland have said that this is the most extensive investigation into January 6th that's ever been done.
00:23:30.000And why that level of vigor has not been applied in the case of the pipe bomb suspect, strange credulity.
00:23:37.000It's unacceptable that that's the case.
00:23:41.000And I'd also say, and this is something that we highlight in the Real Clear Investigation's political riot database.
00:23:48.000Why wasn't there anywhere near such an effort put forth by federal authorities and other authorities as well when it comes to pursuing those who participated in the riots of the summer of 2020, which resulted in 16,000 plus arrests over several months, where there were attacks on police facilities as well as federal judiciary facilities when we're talking about the fact that there were substantially more assaults, between $1 and $2 billion in property damage.
00:24:16.000And the vast majority of cases in at least 12 large jurisdictions for the lower level offenses were just dismissed en masse.
00:24:24.000As you noted, there have been essentially glorified trespassing charges that people have been slapped with with respect to January 6th.
00:24:30.000And all of one case has been dismissed.
00:24:33.000One case, over 700 people charged to date.
00:24:37.000It's incomparable, the legal treatment, as well as the prosecutorial and investigative rigor associated with the summer 2020 riots, which again were far more widespread, violent, and destructive than what transpired on January 6th.
00:24:50.000And it just raises the question once again: do we have a hyper-politicized justice system or not?
00:24:55.000And Ben, you know what's really going on.
00:25:15.000But I think it's important to mention it because it is, we do have an equal protection clause of the Constitution.
00:25:21.000And I think that maybe somewhere on an appeal level, some sympathetic judge or panel of judges are going to look at some of the sentencing, look at some of the treatment of the prisoners, which I want to get to in just a second.
00:25:32.000So now I want to get to another big part of their lie, which is where they try to put all these different pieces together is that Trump incited this.
00:25:41.000He's that Donald Trump is speaking at the ellipse, incited this.
00:25:44.000Now, the New York Times, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, and the Apparatch crowd, they've been very careful not to communicate to the broader population that does not know Washington, D.C. geography very well, that there's a mile and a half separation between where the actual speech happened and where the Capitol happened.
00:26:03.000And we've been very clear about this time and time again.
00:26:05.000And now that there's coming on this mass propaganda campaign that we're about to come on tomorrow, we have to reemphasize this.
00:26:11.000The speech that Donald Trump gave at the ellipse is a mile and a half from the actual Capitol.
00:26:16.000Now, the significance of this is using the New York Times' own timeline, that barriers were already being penetrated, that the fence was already being basically discarded while Donald Trump was still speaking.
00:26:30.000Yeah, there are a couple of salient points here, and you make a great one, first of all, about the distance from where the actual event was transpiring, where the president was speaking versus the first of the initial breachers at the Capitol complex.
00:26:44.000And I think that was at around 12:50 p.m. Eastern time that day when the initial breach transpired.
00:26:50.000And it appears that Ray Epps was one of the individuals who was there at that breach based on the videotape that we've seen.
00:26:56.000The president was still speaking at the ellipse to a crowd that's been estimated at tens of thousands of entirely peaceful people who were nowhere near the Capitol that day.
00:27:05.000So he's speaking as the initial breach is transpiring.
00:27:09.000And then there's obviously the substance, the content of what he said at the ellipse.
00:27:15.000And of course, what he said is peacefully and patriotically.
00:27:18.000That's the famous clause in that speech.
00:27:20.000So the notion that this was the president directing an attack on the seat of democracy, I think strains more than strains credulity.
00:27:28.000But nevertheless, that case has been made, again, politically, but it's worth bearing in mind: impeachment is a political remedy, not a legal remedy.
00:27:37.000And just like with the hyperbolic rhetoric about sedition, insurrection, terrorism, et cetera, there has not been a legal case made that the president incited a riot.
00:27:48.000Now, the January 6th Select Committee is probably going to try to execute that sort of case.
00:27:52.000It seems like Liz Cheney, among others, is telegraphing that sort of argument.
00:27:56.000She was dishonest in talking about the president's responsiveness, claiming they've famously cited this 187 minutes between the first breach and the president communicating with the public, which is not true.
00:28:08.000There were two other communications within that window.
00:28:11.000Setting all that aside, I think it's once again very telling that there's a political case and rhetoric that's being put forth, but there's not a legal case.
00:28:19.000And I think it's because they know that there is no legal case.
00:28:22.000And stepping back for a second, the incitement standard here is incredibly scary.
00:28:28.000I mean, set aside, of course, that you could, of course, use this against those on the left who whitewashed, obfuscated, and in some cases themselves have actively endorsed, even called for fundraising that effectively incentivizes the exact president, for example, the worst kind of behavior that transpired on January 6th.
00:28:48.000The chill to free speech is incredibly scary.
00:28:51.000If anything that anyone says constitutes incitement to violence, our First Amendment essentially is gone.
00:28:57.000It's eroded and it's meant to chill free political speech.
00:29:01.000And political speech, by the way, being the core of the First Amendment, according to the Supreme Court's own arguments.
00:29:07.000And I think that's why you have not seen the legal case put forth because there isn't one.
00:29:28.000Which is why it's been very clear their strategy is put points on the board with all the easy misdemeanors and then try to demoralize and keep the heavier charge people in a gitmo type environment, which segues to something I also want to talk to you about.
00:29:43.000What's going on with the treatment of some of these prisoners in the DC jail?
00:29:58.000Yeah, so there have been, there are currently about 40 plus accused defendants sitting in the DC jail in a specific wing for capital breach participants, who in many cases had no criminal records, but have been sitting in pretrial detention for months.
00:30:16.000And according to reporting, including a report that I assume Twitter will pull down that Marjorie Taylor Green's office put out when she toured that facility, these prisoners have been subjected to beatings in some cases, abusive language, and far worse.
00:30:33.000Some have apparently been held in solitary confinement for days on end of 23 hours in a day.
00:30:41.000One judge pulled a capital riot defendant out of that prison for fear because the judge himself acknowledged that there could be retribution against him for calling out the apparent abuse.
00:30:54.000Those being held in that facility have claimed that they haven't had access to their lawyers, all sorts of horrible conditions.
00:31:00.000So horrible, in fact, that a judge called for an investigation into the facilities.
00:31:04.000Subsequently, several hundred prisoners were moved out of the DC jail because of the findings.
00:31:09.000None of the Capitol rioters were moved out.
00:31:11.000So the very people who instigated the investigation, called for the investigation on grounds of abusive, inhumane conditions there themselves were not moved out.
00:31:22.000And it's also worth noting that really in some cases, the process itself has served as the punishment.
00:31:28.000So even if there isn't sentencing ultimately, that's incredibly harsh.
00:31:31.000There are people who are going to be held in pre-trial detention, non-hardened criminals in some cases, for over a year, waiting for their case to be heard.
00:31:43.000I don't think that there's an analog to be found when it comes to the summer 2020 riots or other such events.
00:31:49.000And in one case, even one of the defendants there, the maximum sentence he ultimately faced was shorter than the time he spent in pretrial detention.
00:31:58.000And that's just a very disturbing thing in America.
00:32:01.000The only analog is what happened after 9-11 when we put a bunch of people that were loosely connected to a terror cell and threatened them with the harshest level charges imaginable to try to find out why 3,000 Americans were killed.
00:32:15.000But make no mistake, you talk, they're trying to compare this to 9-11.
00:32:18.000This is a domestic terror operation that they're trying to employ against people whose politics they don't like.
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00:33:26.000What am I missing as we kind of look at this entire ever-growing picture?
00:33:31.000Well, I guess the one thing that we haven't really touched on is Nancy Pelosi and what the authorities were doing during the several hours that transpired on January 6th.
00:33:42.000I mean, how is it possible that the most well-funded, most sophisticated, and dangerous and powerful security apparatus in the history of mankind not only didn't defend the Capitol, but literally opened the doors wide open in certain instances?
00:33:59.000Another question that we really need an answer to, and Julie Kelly is who you mentioned, has really doggedly pursued this, is what happened in the tunnel near the Capitol where some of the most violent episodes occurred?
00:34:14.000And more broadly, to what extent did authorities sort of act first and provoke a response from the crowd?
00:34:20.000And again, this isn't to be some sort of conspiracy theorist.
00:34:23.000It's just, you know, for the last more than two years, we've heard all about police brutality and violence and the supposed corruption of our authorities.
00:34:32.000So why wouldn't we want to know to what extent cops operated in a way that was below board, in a way not consistent with the law and practice and such?
00:34:41.000And to the extent this was a peaceful rally that was then provoked and turned into a big conflagration and something that was insidious, we ought to know everything that transpired.
00:34:52.000That goes to the 14,000 plus hours of footage.
00:34:54.000What could possibly be hidden in that footage and why would you hide that footage?
00:34:59.000So I think that we really need to get a handle on what authorities were doing, how they conducted themselves that day, how it could be possible that these individuals could just march right in in certain cases, almost invited.
00:35:12.000It would also be good to know, you know, what were the records around these purported investigation into Lieutenant Michael Byrd, who was responsible for shooting and killing Ashley Babbitt.
00:35:24.000It's interesting to note that that was the only shooting and killing that transpired that day.
00:35:29.000So, you know, if he acted by the book and according to their standards, should there not have, I mean, presumably there would have been other people who might have been shot and killed during that event.
00:35:38.000We really ought to get the full records on that and a whole slew of other basic records associated with that day.
00:35:43.000But authorities have been very reticent to open up the book.
00:35:46.000So it'll be very interesting in the cases that are adjudicated to see what comes out in the way of exculpatory evidence.
00:35:52.000And again, this isn't to dismiss the worst of the acts of that day, but it's to get the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, which the select committee, of course, is not dedicated to because it's a Soviet show trial style committee, of which there's no opposition in the committee.
00:36:06.000So just breaking right now, Merrick Garland comments on January 6th prosecutions.
00:36:11.000We're going to play this really quick: cut 47.
00:36:13.000And some assaulted officers with pipes, poles, and other dangerous or deadly weapons.
00:36:20.000Perpetrators also targeted, assaulted, tackled, and harassed journalists and destroyed their equipment.
00:36:28.000With increasing numbers of individuals having breached the Capitol, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, including the president of the Senate, Vice President Mike Pence, had to be evacuated.
00:36:42.000As a consequence, proceedings in both chambers were disrupted for hours, interfering with a fundamental element of American democracy, the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next.
00:36:58.000That's a little preview of what we're going to see tomorrow.
00:37:01.000And it doesn't seem like Merrick Garland wants to talk about Ray Epps, but he's been very, very aggressive.
00:37:09.000One minute, summarize all this together, Ben.
00:37:12.000Yeah, I mean, I think you know the charade that this is and the political nature of it in part, because let's not forget for the last five years, first of all, Democrats challenged, contested the presidential elections of Republicans in 2000, 2004, and 2016, of course.
00:37:28.000They've held that Donald Trump was an illegitimate president elected by Russia for more than five years.
00:37:34.000They've actively advocated, or at the very least, sort of sought to whitewash political violence in those, again, far more destructive, widespread, and violent summer 2020 riots.
00:37:44.000And of course, let's not forget that the Obama-Biden administration and continuing under the Biden administration has had no problem making common cause with the world's worst terrorist groups, actual terrorist groups, when it comes to supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East.
00:37:57.000And of course, trying to make Iran the world's leading state sponsor of terror, the Middle East hegemon.
00:38:03.000It all points to a charade, as does the obfuscation and the disingenuousness of the effort to portray January 6th as on the level of the worst acts in U.S. history.
00:38:12.000What happened that day was shameful, a pathetic display.
00:38:14.000Those who committed crimes ought to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
00:38:18.000They undermine the legitimate questions that we should have been gotten answers to with respect to 2020.
00:38:23.000And it's been used to pursue wrongthinkers in this country to devastating effect.