The House impeachment of former President Trump for inciting an insurrection and his acquittal in the Senate have already come and gone, but there’s still so much we don’t know about what happened at the Capitol on January 6, aside from Instagram videos from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and stories from Newsweek about how rioters had gotten into her office (they hadn’t). As Twitchy reported Monday, even the widespread narrative that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick had been bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher has been debunked via texts to his brother.
Another narrative going around is that the insurrectionists had brought zip-ties to the Capitol, purportedly to kidnap members of Congress. Two men were photographed with and arrested for having the zip-ties, but apparently, no one brought zip-ties with them as part of a plot.
Supervisory Special Agent Glenn has determined there were no zip-ties. Without peer, 1 of 1 pic.twitter.com/16CqQvZZ9h
— Robert Caruso (@robertcaruso) February 16, 2021
To be fair, Newsweek corrected its reporting that rioters had breached Ocasio-Cortez’s office and the Times ran a correction saying that the death of Sicknick was in question, so the retractions are (quietly) getting out there.
Here’s Rep. Ruben Gallego:
I know zip ties, I carried zip ties, I used zip ties on prisoners in Iraq. Those are zip ties. https://t.co/sbyeTXKLZh
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) February 16, 2021
I have no doubt Mr. Iraq War Veteran – who joined with Liz Cheney to prevent a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan — knows *a lot* about zip ties.
He knows little about how to read journalism, since the reference was to the false story that the protesters *brought* them with them https://t.co/svfixdETCU
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 16, 2021
Not really sure why a still extremely-pro-war Democratic Member of Congress would think this shameful episode is something to boast about rather than apologize for: pic.twitter.com/hW0QlhvULF
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 16, 2021
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Anyway, purported fact-checkers are pretending my reference to the false zip-tie story was to deny there were zip-ties in the Capitol. OF COURSE there were zip-ties in the Capitol.
The prosecutors *admit* the false claim is the protester brought them:https://t.co/orDahGqy88
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 16, 2021
The media’s last non-debunked Capitol riot talking point has now likewise been debunked https://t.co/Xbb2174KGp
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 16, 2021
❌ “Rioters planned the attack on Parler”
❌ “Rioters had plans to kidnap lawmakers”
❌ “No left-wing activists were part of the riot”
❌ “Rioters killed 5 people”
❌ “Rioters bludgeoned a cop to death with a fire extinguisher”
❌ “Rioters brought zip ties to the Capitol”— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 16, 2021
The legacy media’s main function these days seems to be laundering sensational rumors as reported fact while orchestrating the suppression of voices that make this work more difficult
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) February 16, 2021
According to the DOJ, the zip ties were left sitting on a table that one of the intruders happened to randomly encounter. The falsity of the initial "zip tie" narrative was the now-discredited suggestion that they indicated some kind of premeditated mass kidnapping plot https://t.co/lPeM6WL70w
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) February 16, 2021
This is what the House could not wait to investigate. Why does @SpeakerPelosi want an outside investigation instead of bipartisan panel? Because Republicans might ask questions about the official narrative that drove the snap #Impeachment. https://t.co/hQBNw5IdVn
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) February 16, 2021
On top of that they used the zip tie guy during impeachment misleading people without providing context. You wonder why there are hearings and investigations before someone is impeached, this is why. https://t.co/Dgbqg5CviZ
— Stuck in the Middle (@StucknDaMid) February 16, 2021
None of this excuses the storming of the Capitol, but isn’t it better to have facts than to just run with a narrative? And for what it’s worth, the two men seen with the flex cuffs were arrested and are being prosecuted.
Related:
The FBI has arrested the two men seen with zip-ties inside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday https://t.co/V83JiWpW9y
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) January 11, 2021
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