Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday raised the possibility that the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol was not a “true insurrection” and expressed concern about the “weaponization of government” against those charged with crimes in connection to the riot.
“It is quite clear that many of the January 6 protestors broke the law in what may have started as a protest but turned into a riot. Because it happened with the encouragement of President Trump, and in the context of his delusion that the election was stolen from him, many people see it not as a riot but as an insurrection,” he said in a statement.
He continued, “I have not examined the evidence in detail, but reasonable people, including Trump opponents, tell me there is little evidence of a true insurrection.”
Part of Kennedy’s statement references the long-debunked claim that the rioters “carried no weapons” while attacking the Capitol. The statement inaccurately says that none of the protesters had plans to overthrow the government, even though some of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were convicted of sedition.
Kennedy called the January 6 attack “one of the most polarizing topics on the political landscape” and said he wants “to hear every side” of the issue in the lengthy statement. He condemned protesters who broke the law and Trump’s “delusion that the election was stolen” while questioning whether “political objectives” led to the prosecution of January 6 protestors.
“Like many reasonable Americans, I am concerned about the possibility that political objectives motivated the vigor of the prosecution of the J6 defendants, their long sentences, and their harsh treatment,” Kennedy said in the statement. “That would fit a disturbing pattern of the weaponization…
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