Because so many Republican officials pretend that the Jan. 6 attack didn’t happen, they often get tripped up by their self-imposed blind spot. A few months ago, for example, House Speaker Mike Johnson boasted, “We’ve always stood with Capitol Police and law enforcement. We’ve shown that in word and deed.”
That sounded nice, but it wasn’t altogether true.
The Louisiana Republican had plenty of company. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, for example, recently said the country couldn’t tolerate “unlawful” and “riotous” assemblies around government buildings, despite the “unlawful” and “riotous” events surrounding the Capitol on Jan. 6. And when FBI Director Kash Patel also said, “Hit a cop, you’re going to jail,” he neglected to mention the Jan. 6 rioters who hit cops and were rewarded with “get out of jail free” cards from Donald Trump.
Attorney General Pam Bondi similarly declared, “If you touch a law enforcement officer, if you spit on a law enforcement officer, if you batter a law enforcement officer, we are coming after you. No longer will you abuse the great men and women of law enforcement.”
Around the same time, Bondi’s Justice Department hired a Jan. 6 rioter who was literally filmed urging his fellow insurrectionists to “kill” police officers.
But the list continues to grow.
In the wake of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shooting Renee Good in Minneapolis, the Trump administration’s official line has repeatedly emphasized a specific claim: The victim had a confrontation with law enforcement officials, who, according to the White House, must be respected and protected from those who might try to harm them.
Not surprisingly, this has led many observers to wonder why the president and his team held Jan. 6 rioters, who violently clashed with law enforcement personnel at the U.S. Capitol, to an entirely different standard. On CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Jake Tapper pressed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on this very point, showing her — and viewers — footage of pro-Trump insurrectionists physically attacking officers and reminding the South Dakota Republican that Trump pardoned those who committed those acts of violence. Noem tried to hedge and dodge, refusing to engage on the underlying point, prompting Tapper to make things plain. “I just showed you video of people attacking law enforcement officers — undisputed proof, undisputed evidence,” the host reminded his guest. “And I just said President Trump pardoned all of them. And you said that President Trump is enforcing all the laws equally. It’s just not true. There’s a different standard for law enforcement officials being attacked if they’re being attacked by Trump supporters.” If administration officials want their claims about Minneapolis to be taken seriously, they can start by reconciling their obvious and unexplained double standard.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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