After a group of extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump had a simple message for them: "Go home. We love you. You're very special."
Trump made a lot of false claims during his presidency — The Washington Post tallied more than 30,000 at one point — but this was one time he was telling the truth. He really does love this group of violent insurrectionists.
That love is carrying over to his presidential campaign, where he has made the attack on the Capitol a cornerstone of his arguments for a second term and, in the process, undermined every claim he ever made to supporting American democracy, law enforcement and even the national anthem.
Early in the rally, an announcer asked the audience to “please rise” for the “horribly and unfairly treated Jan. 6 hostages.”
Consider a recent rally in Ohio, typical of his campaign stops. Early in the rally, an announcer asked the audience to “please rise” for the “horribly and unfairly treated Jan. 6 hostages.” Trump then saluted as the so-called J6 Prison Choir’s recording of the national anthem was played to an adoring crowd of Trump faithful.
It's a scene worth unpacking. Let's begin with what respecting the national anthem supposedly means to Trump.
You may recall that when then-San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began taking a knee during the national anthem to protest systemic racism, Trump found it an intolerable display, calling on NFL owners to “get that son of a b---- off the field" if any of their players knelt. When Vice President Mike Pence walked out of an NFL game in 2017 over players kneeling, Trump praised him.
Now, Trump’s rallies feature a version of the anthem performed by those who attempted to kneecap the very democracy that it celebrates. And it’s not just Trump. The entire MAGA movement is saluting the song. According to Forbes, the J6 Choir’s “Justice for All” — its official title — was downloaded more than 30,000 times in less than a week when it debuted last year, even outselling “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus.
The hypocrisy doesn’t end there. Take a closer look at the “horribly and unfairly treated Jan. 6 hostages.”
The Washington Post reports that one of the choir’s members is Shane Jenkins of Texas, who was sentenced for actions that included shattering a Capitol window with a tomahawk and attacking law enforcement officers.
According to the Justice Department:
“Jenkins hurled nine different objects at the officers, including a solid wooden desk drawer. In addition to the desk drawer, Jenkins threw a flagpole, a metal walking stick, and a broken wooden pole with a spear-like point at police in the Tunnel.”
For his actions that day, Jenkins was sentenced to seven years in prison. But if you look at Trump's past statements, that's not even a very long sentence.
After all, when protests against the murder of George Floyd overtook the nation in 2020, Trump demanded that anyone caught vandalizing federal property be sentenced to 10 years in prison. In fact, the then-president said he had authorized the federal government to mandate these sentences, emphasizing there would be “no exceptions!”
Make no mistake, Jan. 6 was an act of vandalism, too. The Justice Department estimates $2.7 million in financial losses as a result of the Capitol siege, including the damage to federal property.
But the embrace of the Jan. 6 rioters betrays an even more glaring incident of hypocrisy by Trump and the MAGA movement, who have long staked their political fortunes on how much they support law enforcement.
Standing with the insurrectionists means standing against police, however. Approximately 140 D.C. Metro and Capitol Police officers were assaulted during the insurrection, according to the Justice Department. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards described the events as a “war scene,” testifying that she was “slipping in people’s blood.”
Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who resigned from the force because of trauma from the riot, testified that, on Jan. 6, he was “more afraid to work at the Capitol than my entire deployment to Iraq.”
Lt. Michael Byrd was holding off rioters attempting to storm the Speakers’ Gallery, one of whom was Ashli Babbitt. After repeatedly warning the rioters to stand down, Byrd fatally shot Babbitt as she attempted to climb through a shattered door and advance further into the Capitol. In an exclusive interview with Lester Holt, Byrd emphasized that he waited as long as he could before he was forced to take that “last resort.”
Despite being cleared of wrongdoing by the Justice Department and the Capitol Police, Byrd was forced into hiding for months because of death threats from those defending Babbitt’s actions.
Trump fanned those flames just months after the attack, calling Byrd a murderer and demanding that “justice” be served. As recently as last year, Trump decried Byrd — who is Black — as a “thug” and falsely accused him of bragging about the shooting.
That's a much different tone than Trump took after the killing of Rayshard Brooks, an Atlanta man fatally shot by police in 2020. Trump said at the time, “I hope [the officer] gets a fair shake because police have not been treated fairly in our country. They have not been treated fairly, but, again, you can’t resist a police officer like that.” And in 2017, he called on officers not to worry about injuring suspects during arrests, claiming police were being forced to be “too nice.”
But the MAGA Movement, which claims to “back the blue,” has followed the path Trump forged. In 2022, 17 Republicans voted against legislation allowing families of Capitol Police officers who committed suicide after Jan. 6 to receive federal benefits. Trump endorsed at least 12 of those 17 lawmakers, and in multiple instances, emphasized the lawmakers' support for police.
Trump only defends the people and entities who serve his interests. He discards them once they’re no longer useful.
That’s because Trump only defends the people and entities who serve his interests. He discards them once they’re no longer useful.
When the Constitution he swore to protect no longer served him, he called for its termination. When the democratic process that propelled him to the White House in 2016 failed him four years later, he worked overtime to discredit it. When law enforcement officers Trump had venerated took steps to defend the Capitol, Trump called them murderers and thugs.
And when extremist supporters of the former President cast aside the rule of law to try to violently undo the results of a free and fair election, Trump abandoned it with them.
Trump’s veneration of the insurrectionists reveals where his true loyalty lies. It’s not to law enforcement. It’s not to the Constitution that, if he has his way, he’ll be taking an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend” in less than a year, on the same spot his supporters overran.
It’s to himself, and to the people who endangered nearly every member of Congress, every staff member, custodian and cafeteria worker on Capitol Hill, every responding law enforcement officer, his own vice president, and our very democracy.
For more thought-provoking insights from Symone Sanders-Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez, watch “The Weekend” every Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. ET on MSNBC.
