Replacing history with a lie is not an easy task. To convince millions that the Confederacy was a noble cause or that the Holocaust never happened requires an extraordinary effort, one that will fail more often than it succeeds.
There is a similar effort unfolding before us right now and every American who cares about maintaining our democracy has an obligation to resist it. I speak of the attempt to rewrite the history of Jan. 6, 2021, to convince America that the attempt by Donald Trump and his fanatical supporters to overthrow the U.S. government was, in fact, a principled protest undertaken by virtuous patriots.
Just as Trump pardoned a bevy of his miscreant cronies on his way out of the White House, he now pledges to release those who overran the Capitol.
The lie of the righteous insurrection has become central to Trump’s effort to return to the White House. It’s not just that Trump repeats endlessly that the 2020 election was stolen and that he was its true victor, though he does. He has made his campaign into an extension of the insurrection itself.
Earlier this week, Trump promised on his social media platform that “My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!” Just as he pardoned a bevy of his miscreant cronies on his way out of the White House, he now pledges to release those who overran the Capitol. And this priority is so important that it must be accomplished on his first day, he says.
Spreading the lie that Jan. 6 convicted criminals are not who they are — members of a violent group who assaulted law enforcement officers, smashed windows and doors, pursued lawmakers with bloodthirsty intent, and ransacked the place where our laws are made — but are instead unjustly imprisoned “hostages” has become the ultimate test for Republicans seeking to prove their loyalty to Trump. It’s no surprise then that Elise Stefanik, Trump lickspittle…
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