Trump-appointed Pentagon officials rename assault on Capitol—prepare to be outraged

Daily Kos Staff

Saturday January 09, 2021 · 8:21 AM PST

2021/01/09 · 08:21

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: Protesters gather on the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Pro-Trump protesters entered the U.S. Capitol building after mass demonstrations in the nation's capital during a joint session Congress to ratify President-elect Joe Biden's 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images) — Trump supporters hurled down American flags and replaced them with Trump banners

Over the last week, there have been many reasons to be enraged, disgusted, and horrified. But this may require a complete reset of the outrage meter.

The Pentagon has released a heavily slanted timeline of events surrounding the Donald Trump-incited insurrection on Wednesday. Only they didn’t call it an insurrection. Or an assault. Or an attempted overthrow of the American government by white supremacist forces organized, inspired, and directed by Donald Trump. It’s not a coup. It’s not even a failed revolution.

The Pentagon is calling Wednesday’s events “First Amendment Protests.”

The timeline from the office of the Secretary of Defense not only paints a violent assault on the nation—one in which men in tactical gear roamed through the House and Senate seeking hostages while others smeared human shit on the walls—as “protests,” it give the event capital letters. First Amendment Protests. So don’t be surprised this is now the “official” name assigned to thousands of Trump supporters attempting a violent takeover.

What did this feces-spreading assault on the nation have to do with the First Amendment? Well, it did deliver a powerful message to the media—by destroying expensive equipment, threatening reporters, and making it clear that they were next on the list to be hanged.

They made a noose out of the camera wire and hung it from a tree. pic.twitter.com/0ZngpatM1d
— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) January 6, 2021

But the clear reason that this name is now getting slapped onto the event has nothing to do with the actual motivations of the insurrectionists or the theme of that day. Despite the “March for Trump” banners, the official name of the rally was “Stop the Steal.” The lie that there had been significant election fraud was included in every invitation, every speech, and every statement, all encouraging the Nazi crowd to get out there and burn that Reichstag.

The sole reason that Pentagon—and absolutely, the Trump White House —is attempting this rebranding is not just to diminish what happened by calling them “protests,” but an attempt to link them to Trump being banned from Twitter and Facebook after the assault took place.

Fascinatingly, the Defense Department is referring to Wednesday’s pro-Trump riot as “the January 6, 2021 1st Amendment Protests.” https://t.co/RFeeR4OGK6 pic.twitter.com/46FKLBi4zI
— Bradley Peniston (@navybook) January 9, 2021

Trump-appointed Pentagon officials rename assault on Capitol—prepare to be outraged

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