Trump spends a lot of time at rallies and in interviews lamenting the apparent reality that January 6th was, at least in part, a set-up by the intelligence agencies, law enforcement organizations, and other arms of the Deep State to politically persecute him and his supporters.
There is substantial evidence to this effect, including:
- The anomaly of Ray Epps – the man caught inciting violence in multiple instances on both the 6th and the night before most exhaustively documented by Revolver News – who has inexplicably escaped prosecution even while non-violent defendants have received lengthy prison sentences from the D.C. justice system.
and:
- The odd deflections and obfuscations of Department of Justice personnel when questioned under oath about fed involvement in the protest that day.
I questioned Attorney General Garland about whether there were Federal Agents present on 1/6 and whether they agitated to go into the Capitol. Attorney General Garland refused to answer. pic.twitter.com/RHq3Yd2pbu
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 21, 2021
At any rate, what has transpired at the hands of the Biden Department of Justice far outstrips the event itself in terms of the destructiveness of rule of law. Political persecution is now normalized under the guise of, ironically, “defending democracy.”
The corporate state media’s bloodlust for January 6th protesters is unquenchable.
This anti-free-speech campaign, apparently largely based on government malfeasance, cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged, and the person best positioned to prevent that from happening is one Donald Trump.
Contrary to how they are depicted in such media outlets, many of the protesters either already in prison, currently being prosecuted, or under active investigation – new arrests occur at regular frequency even two-plus years later – are not “domestic terrorists” or anything of the sort. They are law-abiding citizens who felt that the potency of their vote had been diluted by fraud and who took to the streets – as is their constitutional right – to voice their distress.
I know, in fact, personally, and have interviewed previously, one such individual who was in the capitol that day and is currently under FBI investigation but has not been charged or arrested yet. He/she has requested to remain anonymous to avoid self-incrimination. The threat of potential charges for non-violent activities that day still looms large, casting a chilling effect over his/her public speech.
He/she is a good person, active in civil life, who believes in the concept of America as a representative republic, perhaps as much or more than anyone I know.
Given all of that context, this, in my opinion, is how Trump should start every rally from now until election day 2024:
Thousands of American citizens have been subjected to an ill that should never be visited upon members of a free society: a politically-motivated persecution campaign designed to chill the exercise of First Amendment rights.
We don’t tolerate political imprisonment in the United States. That’s the domain of Third World banana republics and authoritarian dystopias. This cannot, and will not, stand when I become president.
Their names are…
He should then proceed to recite the names of every protester currently incarcerated while promising a blanket day-one pardon – no hedges – for each and every one of them. Even the worst offenders – the ones who actually committed vandalism or interpersonal violence — will have served enough time once Trump presumably assumes office in 2025. They will definitely have served more time than any run-of-the-mill gangbanger in any district with a George Soros-funded DA, where preferential treatment for favored races is now official government policy.
In the meantime, until January 20, 2025, Trump should walk the walk by footing the bill for all of the Jan 6 prisoners’ legal bills. He has the resources himself as well as the platform to crowdfund any money he doesn’t want to expend himself on their legal representation. There is no excuse not to.
This is the kind of patronage that true leaders enact to reward loyalty — as a result, generating the kind of goodwill he will need more than ever to overcome, assuming he becomes the nominee, the hell that the Deep State has in store for him to keep him out of office.
These people are representative of Trump’s most ardent supporters. Many of them came from as far away as California to exercise their inalienable rights that day in support of Trump. They believed enough to make the trek. They, in short, are the muscle that made Trump a grassroots phenomenon in the first place.
I’m positive Trump has an army of establishment, “centrist,” “moderate” consultants and advisors (otherwise known as RINOs) whispering into his ear that publicly supporting Jan. 6 political prisoners would do more political harm come the general election than good it would do him in the current primary. After all, he’s got a double-digit lead, so there’s no point from a purely electoral perspective in pulling risky moves like going all-in on this issue — politicized and supercharged as it is by the corporate state media and the Democrats.
But this is a moral issue, not an electoral one. I prefer leaders to act like leaders and not weasely politicians with scheming aides in their ear. Based on reporting over the 2021 Julian Assange pardon that never materialized, his instincts are right: he wanted to grant the pardon, but due to pressure from the establishment did not pull the trigger. Listening to his instincts against the wishes of the GOP consultant class is what got him elected in 2016, and I wish he would do more of that in the current election.
