Hot and still this near-noon Wednesday here in California’s Central Valley — our weather is finally catching up with us. We’re forecast to top 100-degrees this afternoon.
Although the hearing this morning scheduled for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection/riot/coup at the US Capitol has been postponed, there was nevertheless some drama:
The Jan. 6 Committee just released footage of Rep. Loudermilk's tour a day before the attack. They quote one person who took the tour saying during the march to the Capitol: “There’s no escape Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler. We’re coming for you.”
Video: https://t.co/fCLNsmpT4p pic.twitter.com/xyHvTSPDF6
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) June 15, 2022
Details/background via Salon this morning:
Rght-wing extremists charged in the U.S. Capitol riot threatened to “gas” lawmakers in tunnels where Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., led a tour the previous day.
The Georgia Republican led a group of 15 individuals later identified by police as constituents on a tour of the Capitol complex, where one participant took photos of hallways, staircases and tunnels, and that same man was shown on video from Jan. 6 shouting threats against individual Democratic lawmakers.
“We’re coming to take you out and pull you out by your hairs,” the man says, referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. “When I get done with you, you’re going to need a shine on top of that bald head.”
Conspiracy charges filed shortly after the riot showed a group of three Oath Keepers were particularly interested in lawmakers’ movements in the tunnels underneath the Capitol complex, and one of them, Thomas Edward Caldwell, allegedly received a Facebook message about them.
“All members are in the tunnels under capital seal them in,” reads the message. “Turn on gas.”
Caldwell also received another message on the topic, according to an affidavit that replicates spelling errors in the original statement.
“Tom all legislators are down in the Tunnels 3 floors down,” the message reads. “Do like we had to do when I was in the core (sic) start tearing oit florrs go from top to bottom.”
The Jan. 6 committee noted on Wednesday that the tour had visited “entrances to Capitol tunnels.”
“Individuals on the tour photographed/recorded areas not typically of interest to tourists: hallways, staircases and security checkpoints,” the committee tweeted.
There is currently no evidence that the people who went on the tour were involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Although US Capitol Police concluded “there is no evidence” Loudermilk led a reconnaissance tour, “and we do not consider any of the activities we observed as suspicious,” there’s got to be a connection in there as a lot of the other shit on Jan. 6 ties in, from T-Rump’s speech calling for a march on the Capitol to right-wingers already in position before the Orange-Turd asshole had stopped talking — this wasn’t a fly-by-night, spontaneous event.
This shit was programmed.
This nugget from CNN on the story: ‘The committee has not explicitly accused Loudermilk of leading a reconnaissance tour but it did ask him to voluntarily answer questions about what is seen on the video released Wednesday. Loudermilk’s story, however, has repeatedly shifted in terms of the details of what happened on January 5.‘
Despite the reality of the fact, Fox News is way-quick to sweep it away from serious consideration:
Good job guys pic.twitter.com/baMCDsAy92
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 15, 2022
Yet once again, here we are…
(Illustration out front: Salvador Dalí’s ‘Galatea of the Spheres,’ found here).