Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to publicly release thousands of hours of Capitol security footage from Jan. 6, 2021, has fueled a renewed effort by Republican lawmakers and far-right activists to rewrite the history of the attack that day and exonerate the pro-Trump rioters who took part.
Mr. Johnson’s move last week to make the footage available — something the far right has long demanded — came as he tried to allay the anger of hard-line Republican lawmakers for working with Democrats to keep the government funded.
Now, some of the same people who were irate about that decision are using the Jan. 6 video to circulate an array of false claims and conspiracy theories about the largest attack on the Capitol in centuries.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the hard-right Georgia Republican, was among the first lawmakers to post false information about the newly released videos.
But the item in the man’s hand in the screen grab she circulated appears, upon closer inspection, to have been a vape pen.
Persons:
Mike Johnson’s, Johnson’s, —, Marjorie Taylor Greene, “, ”, Kevin Lyons
Organizations:
Capitol, Republican, Trump, Georgia Republican