Capitol rally live: Justice for J6 rally sees small turnout, heavy police presence

A rally attendee, Andres Bruce, told The Independent that the rally was in support of those who are accused of “non-violent” offenses on 6 January, including trespassing and entering the Capitol grounds unlawfully.

“If you committed a violent act, that’s a crime and that can’t be defended,” he said. “But, most of the ones, it’s trespassing, and you know, going into a controlled area, and other charges that aren’t violent in nature.”

“I think most of the people who came that day had no intention of disrupting an official proceeding,” Mr Bruce argued.

While the rally has officially begun, crowds are much smaller than had been anticipated. Around 700 people were expected to attend the event, but so far no more than 200 protesters have shown up. Scores of media and security personnel are on site too.

One of the speakers at Saturday’s rally led rally attendees in a chant of the names of two women killed during January’s assault on the Capitol.

The small crowd, along with the female speaker, chanted the names of Ashli Babbitt, who is thought to have been shot by a police officer and killed while inside the building attempting to breach the House chambers, and Roseanne Boyland, who was trampled outside of the building as chaos ensued while hundreds of protesters attacked Capitol Police barricades.

Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff to ex-Homeland Security chief John Kelly and author of the “Anonymous” op-ed that set Washington’s political sphere on fire in 2018, unloaded on the GOP, of which he remains a member, during an MSNBC interview as the Justice for J6 rally began.

In the interview, he said that he never thought he would see such widespread support for what he called “terrorists” who stormed the Capitol among his own party.

“Today, I think we look more like a Tinder for terrorists where radicals around the country can swipe right and match with an extremist politician who amplifies their views and then when they get into trouble and commit crime, tries to bail them out from prison,” Mr Taylor said. “So if you ask me right now we look a little bit less like the party of Lincoln and more like a Tinder for terrorists.”

“Let me be clear, these are not political prisoners,” he added of the jailed 6 January defendents. “These are criminals.”

As the rally progressed on Saturday in front of a small audience of supporters and a larger group of assembled media, one female speaker read a note claiming to have been authored by the mother of a defendent currently awaiting trial for their actions on 6 January.

The note’s most shocking line indefensibly likened the treatment of accused rioters to victims of the Holocaust, which the author justified by claiming that the accused persons did not have access to shaving equipment or haircuts.

“This reminds me of how the Jewish people were treated by the Nazis,” the female speaker said, reading from the note.

The woman identified herself as “Kelly” and as the girlfriend of Jonathan Mellis, a man accused of attacking Capitol Police officers with a stick or other blunt weapon of some kind during the 6 January attack.

Saturday’s rally on the grounds of the Capitol ended with little fanfare and none of the violence feared by law enforcement and residents of DC ahead of the event, likely due in no small part to the small crowd size and overwhelming police presence.

Videos showed rallygoers walking calmly out of the Union Square venue as counterprotesters blared the YG & Nipsey Hussle hit, “FDT (F*ck Donald Trump).

Democratic lawmakers took to Twitter on Saturday to condemn the Justice for J6 rally as well as their Republican counterparts who in many cases spread some of the same conspiracy theories about the 2020 election that drove those at the Capitol on 6 January.

Rep Hakeem Jeffries, a close ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and chair of the House Democratic Caucus, noted that no members of House GOP leadership had condemned the rally’s participants: “Today’s hateful rally on Capitol Hill is a celebration of cop killers and domestic terrorists,” he added.

Rep Eric Swalwell, a congressman on the Intelligence and Homeland Security panels, contended that the rallies had the blessing of GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Matthew Braynard argued with MSNBC’s Yasmin Vossoughian on Saturday regarding whether pro-Trump rioters had “stormed” the Capitol on the day of 6 January, claiming that police had instead ushered the mob inside by holding the doors of the Capitol open.

“So these are people who unlawfully stormed the Capitol," Ms Vossoughian said, before Mr Braynard interjected.

"Storming is a characterisation, that's your characterisation, it’s not mine," he said, before adding that "In many cases they walked through a door held open by a Capitol police officer."

Videos uncovered by the New York Post and other news outlets have shown officers directing rioters out of the building on the day of 6 January by holding the doors open for them to leave after much of the violence had died down, but Capitol Police have maintained since the day of the attack that they only abandoned positions after heavily outnumbered officers became overwhelmed and threatened with or experiencing violence.

A paralegal from Georgia who argued that she did not support the mob that stormed the Capitol but nevertheless was at the rally in support of them on Saturday told NBC News that she wanted to see the US Capitol destroyed in a nuclear blast.

“If a nuclear bomb dropped on that Capitol building,” said 58-year-old Lori Smith, “I would celebrate.”

The woman went on to argue that the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt, a woman who was killed while allegedly attempting to breach the House chamber with lawmakers inside, should be charged in a manner similar to Derek Chauvin, the former officer convicted of killing George Floyd.

Capitol Police announced that the officer, who recently revealed his identity publicly as Lt. Michael Byrd, would not face disciplinary action.

Several dozen protesters opposed to the messages of leniency for the 6 January rioters being spread nearby at Union Square rallied at Freedom Plaza early Saturday afternoon as the Justice for J6 rally concluded.

Organizers brought homemade riot shields and had helmets nearby in case violence broke out between the two groups of demonstraters, but no signs of that violence actually occurring could be seen as attendees mostly played music and talked amongst themselves.