Americans have been gaslighted, again. After a horde of Trump supporters sacked the U.S. Capitol building over Congress certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the Electoral College this month, Democrats and legacy media raised hysteria that the recent incursion was the first in what was supposed to become a series of domestic attacks targeting state capitols ahead of the inauguration.
The FBI leaked a bulletin to friendly press raising the alarm over a second Civil War, warning of a mass operation to overthrow state and federal governments in the run-up to Biden taking office.
This FBI warning is very disturbing, An internal FBI bulletin obtained by @CNN says: "Armed protests are being planned at all 50 state capitols from 16 January through at least 20 January, and at the US Capitol from 17 January through 20 January.” Details in @CNNSitRoom 5-7PM ET
— Wolf Blitzer (@wolfblitzer) January 11, 2021
An internal FBI note obtained by @ABC News shows warnings of "a huge uprising." https://t.co/YsfZLP3PJ7
— ABC News (@ABC) January 12, 2021
Upwards of 25,000 federal troops descended on Washington to prepare for the imminent insurrection, occupying the city with more boots on the ground in the Beltway than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. At least 17 other states called up the National Guard. Police ramped up security in all 50 state capitols, bracing for an attack, while Democrats exploiting the Jan. 6 crisis at the Capitol continued to feed fears of a right-wing revolution after spending eight months vilifying law enforcement in the wake of their own in the name of social justice.
Reminder that our nation's capital looked like this at the beginning of the summer and most Democrats/media shrugged it off as mostly peaceful https://t.co/1zvsLVRuQc
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 6, 2021
“What happened on Jan. 6 … might not be the end of the insurrection, but the beginning,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., told NPR just after the Capitol riot. “We need to be concerned.”
Americans bought the narrative. According to a Hill-HarrisX poll conducted from Jan. 8-11, 73 percent of registered voters reported they were concerned about repeated violence in the run-up to the inauguration.
Routine outbursts might have been more likely to ensue, just like last year’s never-ending “1619 Riots,” if prominent elites had sought to exhaustively justify the carnage at the U.S. Capitol the way Hollywood, the corporate media, and the Democratic Party did in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. Instead, however, the events at the Capitol were roundly condemned by both sides, where conservatives consistently vilified the violence while Democrats capitalized on it to initiate a progressive purge of their political opponents. As the New York Times published on Sunday, however, FBI warnings of a violent uprising, amplified by Democrats with hysterical theatrics featuring more troops occupying Washington than parts of the Middle East, have yet to substantiate.
“After Capitols Become Fortresses, Far-Right Protesters Are Mostly a No-Show,” the Times headlined its reporting.
The nation’s militarized streets on Sunday were a remarkable spectacle as police and National Guard officers faced off with promised right-wing protests that, at least on Sunday, were reduced to a whimper. Protesters in some states could be counted on one hand.
In Pennsylvania, “there were so few protesters that reporters lined up on the sidewalk to interview a man who gave his name only as Alex and wore a sweatshirt that said ‘Fraud 2020.’”
In Denver, the press again far outnumbered the handful of demonstrators.
“I thought there would be at least 100 people,” Larry Woodall told a local Fox affiliate. “I feel like the lone wolf.”
Planned protests stay small and quiet Sunday despite preparations https://t.co/ZmphPVFKTc
— FOX31 Denver KDVR (@KDVR) January 18, 2021
The same story played out again and again across the country, as found by CNN, NPR, and the Associated Press.
Support for increased police presence represented a change of heart for many leftist leaders. The presence of federal troops in Washington once enraged Democrats, who railed against their enhanced presence to protect monuments to actual social justice warriors from attacks by those pretending as such. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser vocally resisted troops in her city, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last year condemned their presence as “alarming,” singling out their protection of the Lincoln Memorial in particular.
Nancy Pelosi criticized the use of the military to guard the Lincoln Memorial after DC experienced multiple riots last year. pic.twitter.com/hY5UPNVacE
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) January 13, 2021
Independent investigative journalist and author of “The Dossier” newsletter Jordan Schachtel warned that media amplification of the FBI’s warning was a ruse from the start, writing in Substack that there was never any evidence to indicate a “huge uprising” of armed pro-Trump militants. The extent of the evidence rested on a flyer found on a Boogaloo aggregator website, which itself had not been claimed by any right-wing group.
The Boogaloo movement is a loosely-defined extremist group calling home to a wide spectrum of ideologies, with some even aligning themselves with Black Lives Matter.
“The group’s main aggregator website makes clear that the movement does not have the capacity to operate in every state,” Schachtel wrote. “In fact, they don’t even have a chapter group link for 25 states.”
