How Trump supporters scrambled to falsely blame Antifa for MAGA Capitol riots: NYT

Thousands of Trump supporters rioted at the United States Capitol building on January 6th -- but several pro-Trump politicians and media figures scrambled to falsely claim Antifa was behind the violence.

A lengthy New York Times report shows how a single tweet sent out by a pro-Trump radio host named Michael Brown metastasized into a full-blown right-wing misinformation campaign about the nature of the Capitol riots.

Shortly after Brown falsely blamed antifa for the riots, his claim was picked up by conservative talk radio host Todd Herman, who at the time was guest hosting Rush Limbaugh's radio show.

The false rumor only continued to spread from there.

"By day's end, Laura Ingraham and Sarah Palin had shared it with millions of Fox News viewers, and Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida had stood on the ransacked House floor and claimed that many rioters 'were members of the violent terrorist group antifa,'" reports the Times.

In reality, all of the rioters were Trump supporters trying to overturn the election, and federal law enforcement officials have yet to indict anyone involved in the riots who didn't believe they were acting on behalf of the former president.

However, that has not stopped millions of Trump supporters from believing the lies they've been told by conservative media.

Jason Franzen, a 46-year-old Trump supporter from Wisconsin, tells the Times that he still believes antifa was behind the riots.

"I don't want to point fingers, but my gut tells me that there were some higher-up Democrats who were instigating the whole thing," he explained. "My gut has been right a lot of times, so I'm just going to go with my gut."