A couple of days after the first and only debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt told viewers that if there were additional debates, there was one subject she didn’t want to hear the candidates discuss.
“Don’t touch on Jan. 6,” the Fox host said. “We all know about Jan. 6. We are sick of that. We need to move on.” The same week, The New York Times reported that Republicans “don’t want to talk about Jan. 6.”
Part of the problem with this is that it’s tough to move on from a crisis when those responsible for creating the crisis refuse to accept responsibility or express contrition. But the other part of the problem is that Trump clearly doesn’t want to stop talking about it.
In fact, as The Associated Press reported, the former president is adding ugly new details to his larger effort to rewrite history.
Former President Donald Trump on Friday compared the people jailed on charges that they stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to the more than 120,000 people of Japanese origin incarcerated on U.S. soil during World War II. “Why are they still being held? Nobody’s ever been treated like this,” he said in an interview with conservative commentator Dan Bongino. “Maybe the Japanese during Second World War, frankly. They were held, too.”
He did not appear to be kidding.
on Dan Bongino's show, Trump compares January 6 insurrectionists to Japanese Americans held in internment camps during WW2, then tells a pack of lies about how Ashli Babbitt was the only person killed on J6 and about how "there were no guns involved" pic.twitter.com/PhW24Jmzm2
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 18, 2024
In the same interview, the Republican nominee also lied about the Jan. 6 death toll, before lying about the insurrectionist rioters being unarmed.
To be sure, as Trump’s 2024 campaign has progressed, he has emphasized his support and affection for Jan. 6 rioters in a variety of ridiculous ways. The former president has defended them as “victims” and “hostages.” He has promised to reward them with pardons — including those who violently clashed with law enforcement. He has helped rioters raise money, and at one point he even released a song with Jan. 6 inmates.
I naively hoped the GOP candidate had reached the bottom of the barrel last week when he told a Univision town hall audience that there was “nothing done wrong” during the assault on the Capitol, while using the word “we” in reference to the insurrectionist rioters who attacked at his behest.
But when he compared Jan. 6 criminals to the victims of the Japanese internment camps, it became clear that Trump reached the bottom of the barrel, dug a hole, and fell a little farther.
In case that weren’t quite enough, on Friday, he also amplified a conspiracy theory that “the government staged a riot to cover up the fact that they certified a fraudulent election.”
Over the weekend, Trump then sat down with Fox News’ Howard Kurtz, bragged about the Jan. 6 crowd size, defended the rioters anew, and said in reference to the day’s developments, “There was a beauty to it and a love to it that I’ve never seen before.”
He also lied once again about the rioters being unarmed, and when Kurtz referenced reality, the former president was completely incredulous.
Harris, referencing Trump’s Jan. 6 rhetoric, told a Wisconsin audience last week, “The American people are exhausted with his gaslighting.” The Democratic vice president added, “Enough.”
We’ll find out in a couple of weeks whether she’s right.
