'Never expected to see it': Foreign correspondent compares Jan. 6 riot to what he saw in Afghanistan and Somalia
Author and journalist Robert Draper, who has spent time covering foreign war zones, told Politico's Ryan Lizza this week that the January 6th Capitol riots reminded him of things he's witnessed in some of the world's most troubled regions.
Talking with Lizza during an episode of the Politico Deep Dive podcast, Draper described the shock he felt while covering the certification of the 2020 election on January 6th, 2021.
"I've been in Afghanistan, Libya, and Somalia, Yemen, a lot of really troubled conflict zones," said Draper, who is also author of the new book Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind. "I just never expected to see a mob of this sort take control over one of our bastions of democracy. It was an extraordinary day, I will never forget it."
Draper, whose father was himself a lifelong Republican, also tells Lizza that he has been shocked to see the vast majority of Republicans double down on supporting Trump even after his supporters chanted for them to be murdered after breaking into the Capitol building.
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"This was the day I thought the Republican Party would realize, 'We've gone too far,' we've got to tame this savage beast, we've got to divest ourselves of the elements that gave rise to this,'" he said. "And that, of course, is not what happened."
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