During a Senate hearing this Tuesday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) suggested that provocateurs and D.C. police officers were the real cause of the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
Johnson started out his questioning of ex-Capitol police chief Steven Sund by referencing an article published at conservative news outlet The Federalist last month that claimed "fake Trump supporters" were present at the Capitol riot, who the author "presumed to be Antifa or other leftist agitators."
Johnson cited the article's author, J. Michael Waller, who claimed that the crowd was mostly "positive and festive" and not an angry mob with the intention to commit violence. Johnson then read aloud a section of the article that suggested Capitol police were negligent in their response to the violence and incited the crowd by firing tear gas.
"All of a sudden, pro-police people felt the police were attacking them, and they didn't know why," Johnson read from the article.
"The pro-police crowd went from confusion, to anger," he read.
Watch his full remarks in the video below: