Monday, December 23

Violence in Washington: “Angry people” … Ultraconservative media put the intrusion into perspective


Congrès américain.

US Congress. – Leigh Vogel / UPI / Shutterstock / SIPA

“If you steal an election, there are going to be a lot of angry people”. Several ultra-conservative American media on Wednesday relativized the seriousness of the intrusion of supporters of Donald Trump on Capitol Hill, evoking a legitimate anger and accusing, without proof, the ultra-left of having infiltrated the movement.

“Most of what we saw today was magnificent. Ben Bergquam, the reporter for the small online channel Real America’s Voice, shot Wednesday in front of the Congress building, a record very different from most observers.

“A large majority of peaceful demonstrators”

The new ultra-conservative TV news players, who are trying to nibble market share from the Fox News benchmark, have regularly sought to dissociate supporters of Donald Trump from the chaos in Congress.

On the one hand, “a large majority of peaceful demonstrators”, according to Ben Bergquam, and, on the other , a “small group” of disruptive elements, as Chris Salcedo, one of the newsmax presenters, described it to whom a significant number of Republicans have referred since the presidential election.

“I think it was undercover antifa”

From Newsmax to R eal America’s Voice, via One America News Network (OAN), which Donald Trump has recommended several times in recent weeks, several of them denounce, without any supporting evidence, the alleged infiltration of tiny ultr-left groups .

“I think it was undercover antifa,” said Gina Loudon, presenter of Real America’s Voice, about the rioters she met Wednesday in the corridors of the Congress. “We do not even know who was on the other side of these doors”, among the rioters, even dared the Republican elected in the House of Representatives Pat Fallon, on Newsmax.

“Angry people”

While denouncing the violence committed in the precincts of the American Parliament, Greg Kelly, of Newsmax, considered as logical the events of Wednesday, which however shocked the whole world.

“If you steal a election, ”he explained, repeating the unfounded accusations of the Trump camp,“ there are going to be a lot of angry people ”. At the gates of Congress, the demonstrators “pushed, rubbed, but for the most part, that’s it”, relativized Kevin Corke, reporter of Fox News, about what several foreign leaders qualified as an attack on democracy.

“It all happens because the people in power have decided to repress the population so severely that things have ended up exploding,” said the star presenter of Fox News, Tucker Carlson, visibly attacking others than the president, without naming them. “I had never before seen the government oppose the patriots,” criticized Gina Loudon, referring to the clashes between supporters of Donald Trump and the police.

They denounce a oriented treatment of the mainstream media

If he too rejected any form of violence, the other star of Fox News, Sean Hannity, nevertheless denounced, like many other conservative commentators, a oriented treatment of the mainstream media.

At no time will there be any question of the possible responsibility of Donald Trump, who has encouraged his supporters to challenge since the election, until beyond the legality, the results of the ballot. All, Sean Hannity in the lead, instead took up the outgoing president’s appeals for calm on Twitter, launched after allowing the situation to escalate.