Saagar Enjeti alluded to a baseless conspiracy theory spread by Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and Alex Jones that January 6 was a false-flag operation coordinated by the FBI
Right-wing grifter Saagar Enjeti alluded to an unfounded conspiracy theory promoted by Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and Alex Jones that January 6 was a false-flag operation organized by the FBI, and his co-host Krystal Ball seemingly agreed that it could be a possibility.
Touting a misleading Reuters article claiming “scant evidence” that the attack on January 6 was organized, Enjeti read from it: “Though federal officials have arrested over 575 alleged participants, the violence was not centrally coordinated by far-right groups or prominent supporters of then-President Donald Trump.”
Multiple media outlets have reported on the specific charges of far-right extremists, and that these extremist groups had been plotting months in advance to coordinate the insurrection, and egg on others to participate.
The Daily Beast reports in a bombshell titled: “DHS Memo: Capitol Attackers plotted in advance,” that an August CBS report characterized at least 83 of the current defendants as linked to “extremist groups.”
From the August 26 edition of USA Today: The lawsuit argues that the conspiracy grew throughout 2020 as Trump and far-right influencers, including the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, sowed doubts about the integrity of the presidential election.
It ties together events from around the country — the takeover of the Michigan state Capitol on April 30, 2020, by armed protesters, violent attacks by the Proud Boys and fiery television appearances by Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers — to argue that they were all part of a nationwide conspiracy aimed at keeping Trump in office even after he lost the election.
The conspiracy increased in its fervor after the election, the lawsuit claims, as purveyors of the “Stop The Steal” conspiracy theory worked to spread disinformation about election fraud. Attacks and threats against election workers should be implicitly tied to the propaganda spread by Trump and others, the complaint argues.
From the August 11 edition of CBS: Authorities have connected at least 83 alleged rioters to extremist groups and ideologies, including the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, Texas Freedom Force and the conspiracy ideology QAnon.
From the January 21 edition of CBS: An organizer with the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys was arrested in Florida on Wednesday for his alleged role in the attack on the Capitol earlier this month. Joseph Randall Biggs, 37, has been charged with obstructing an official proceeding before Congress, disorderly conduct, and entering a restricted building, according to an arrest affidavit. Biggs is a member of the Proud Boys and a self-described organizer of the group's events.
From the January 20 edition of CBS: Thomas Edward Caldwell, Jessica Marie Watkins and Donovan Crowl were charged Tuesday with conspiracy, conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, destruction of government property, obstruction of an official proceeding, unlawful entry into a restricted building and violent entry or disorderly conduct. CBS News was first to obtain the complaint, which marks the first conspiracy case brought against rioters linked to an extremist group. Though the three were initially charged individually, the new complaint says the three plotted together to obstruct the Electoral College vote.
Biggs began publicly encouraging members of the Proud Boys to attend the January 6 demonstration in Washington, D.C., as early as December of last year, according to the affidavit. Some of the communications were with Enrique Tarrio, the chairman of the Proud Boys, who was arrested on January 4 upon his arrival to D.C.
But Enjeti falsely declared on the August 24 edition of Breaking Points that Trump’s insurrection was spontaneous: “So why is this important, because the media has sold us a pack of lies and nobody here is downplaying January 6, even if it was spontaneous, it was still really bad. Was it a coordinated attack on the seat of democracy, no. It was a buncha yahoos who somehow were able to storm the Capitol and did actually obtain the floor of the Senate and more. I think that’s symbolically a total disaster and they should be punished to the full extent of the law.”
“But in terms of charges of domestic terrorism, the organization that was implied here, and all of this focus on the Oathkeepers, none of who I am saying are good people,” he added. “All of this was implied as a coordinated effort so that they can push a new domestic war on terror and the more we learn that the FBI themselves who have all the incentives in the world in order to play up the coordination angle, they can’t even find evidence of that.”
Enjeti, in an accusatory tone, asked the FBI: “What the hell were you doing,” if the insurrection was coordinated.
Ball seemingly agreed, “Why didn’t they disrupt it then?”
“Right, why didn’t you disrupt it, since all evidence currently indicates that you’re doing a helluva job of organizing these fellas in all other sorts of areas, guess we’re not gonna talk about that one,” he continued. “Look, was it bad? Yeah, it was a bad day and it obviously looks pretty spontaneous. That doesn’t actually downplay what it means in terms of the systemic failure of the Capitol Police, the FBI, the federal government, the societal-wide critique that a moron like Donald Trump can inspire millions of people to go and storm the US Capitol.”
The Jan 6. “was an inside job” conspiracy theory hinges on the legally impossible idea that government charging documents against Trump rioters, which also refers to “unindicted co-conspirators,” is somehow a reference to undercover agents.
“No prosecutor would ever use this phrase unindicted co-conspirators to refer to somebody working for the FBI,” said former prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Elie Honig. “We do use this phrase all the time to refer to other things, to refer to people who are still being investigated, who might be charged, to refer to people who have been arrested and cooperated later, different things than from what Carlson is talking about or to refer to people we don’t know exactly who they are yet. Tucker Carlson, all due respect to him, I’ve written a few more indictments than he has. He’s got that dead wrong.”
It would be unhinged for the FBI to leave evidence behind in their own document admitting that they were in on it.
Judging by the top comments, many fans of Saagar Enjeti and Krystal Ball interpreted their baseless innuendo that January 6 was an inside job loud and clear:
The fact is a frothing mob of Trumpist insurrectionists attempted to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election over former President Donald Trump, who helped incite the insurrection through repeated, false claims that the election was stolen from him.
Known informally as The Big Lie — the election fraud conspiracies themselves had been the coordination as Media Matters reported, which further noted: “The idea of a singular coordination of the attack has never been the central issue, compared to the vast pattern of incitement and the harmful propaganda about the 2020 election that sincerely motivated those people to go to the Capitol.”
Enjeti continued: “That all can still be true and it can still not justify a new war on terror; imply some sort of whole-sale plot in order to destroy the country. I see it every day Krystal. […] That people are more concerned about domestic extremism than Islamic terror. What if neither are actually a big threat to your life right now? What if economic livelihood actually is. What if lack of class mobility is?”
Far-right groups are behind far more terrorist attacks in the U.S. and to compare white supremacy to Islamic terror is a gross, racist false equivalency.
Updated 11:35 PM Aug. 28: Changed “to compare it” to “compare white supremacy.”