For Jan. 6 attackers and pro-Donald Trump followers, Ray Epps is a villain that caused the attack on the Capitol. Ironically, Epps was a passionate Trump supporter when he went to Washington for the Jan. 6 rally. He was a loyal Fox viewer too. But, after becoming the GOP's boogyman, he's changed.
Speaking to "60 Minutes" on Sunday, Epps, a former Marine and Oath Keeper, explained he is in hiding, because his fellow MAGA supporters are now sending death threats. He and his wife were forced to sell their home and go on the run.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) accused Epps of being the first one to breach the Capitol, not the Proud Boys.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) publicly asked, "How did Ray Epps know that there were gonna be pipe bombs?" He didn't.
Fox host Tucker Carlson brought up Ray Epps, claiming, "he is on video several times encouraging crimes, riots, breaches of the Capitol." There have been 20 episodes on Carlson's show about Epps.
Even Jan. 6 committee staff in Congress agree that the right-wing conspiracies about Epps are all lies.
"I would just defend the facts. And the facts are that there's still absolutely zero evidence that Ray Epps was a federal agent, or a federal provocateur, or had any kind of contact with the FBI or any other federal agencies," said Thomas Joscelyn, a former congressional investigator for the committee.
"He's obsessed with me. He's going to any means possible to destroy my life and our lives," Epps explained.
"60 Minutes," reporter Bill Whitaker asked why.
"To shift blame on somebody else," said Epps. "If you look at it, Fox News, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ted Cruz, Gaetz, they're all tellin' us before this thing that it was stolen. So you tell me, who has more impact on people, them or me?"
"It was a sloppy election. And then to top that off you have talking heads reporting that there's problems with the voting machines and different things like that. The election's stolen. So yeah, we had concerns. I wanted to be there. I wanted to witness this with my own eyes," said Epps.
He and his 36-year-old son went to Washington, D.C., and ran into problems starting on Jan. 5. There were disagreements among those at a pro-Trump rally. He tried to take charge.
"I'm gonna put it out there I'm probably gonna go to jail for this. Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol! Into the Capitol!" he said to the crowd.
"What?!" someone shouted.
"Peacefully!" Epps said.
It was exactly what Trump told the crowd. But on Jan. 5, the crowd chanted, "Fed! Fed!Fed! Fed!" They thought he was over the top. He had to be a federal agent trying to entrap the Trump followers.
"I said some stupid things. My thought process, we surround the Capitol, we get all the people there. I mean, I had — I had problems with the election. It was my duty as an American to peacefully protest, along with anybody else that wanted to," Epps said.
He chanted, "We are going to the Capitol, where our problems are. It's that direction!"
Meanwhile, Trump was chanting, "We're going to walk down to the Capitol!"
Now the right has turned on one of their own and destroyed his life. At a time that Fox is facing off against Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic in hefty lawsuits, the option would be there for Epps, too, since Carlson has helped perpetuate lies about him and defamed him. A formal request has been sent to Carlson to issue an on-air apology.
See the clip from "60 Minutes" below or at the link here:
Who Is Ray Epps | Sunday on 60 Minuteswww.youtube.com
Jan 6 Committee staffer debunks the Ray Epps conspiracy theorywww.youtube.com
