WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah has tried to whitewash the Capitol riot before, throwing his daughter under the bus in the process. He’s still at it. In a Feb. 28 column, he complained about what the riot was being called:
“The Capitol Insurrection,” “the Siege,” “the armed insurrection in Washington, D.C.” It’s also been described as a “military-style formation” of “anti-government right-wing fringe organizations,” “the storming of the Capitol,” “the Capitol riot,” “armed” protests, and even “a medieval battle.”
And now it’s been called “the Capitol bombing.” A bombing! By no less an authority than the next attorney general, Merrick Garland.
This is getting ridiculous.
It was bad enough when someone decided to call it the “Capitol Insurrection.” It was not a good choice. I don’t know who it was – maybe Nancy Pelosi. But it was not appropriate to call it an “Insurrection.” It never rose to the meaning of that word, which conjures up dire synonyms like “Insurgence,” “Revolt” and “Rebellion.”
Do any of those words sound like a conflict that took just one life – a woman who was gunned down by an as-yet-unnamed Capitol policeman? I hardly think so. Do any of those synonyms suggest a conflict that lasted only a few hours? No.
It was a bad name and we all knew it the first time it was used. It was designed to inflame, to divide, to confuse. And indeed, it has inflamed and confused people to the point that Biden’s AG pick rachets up the rhetoric to “bombing.”
Oddly, Farah did not offer a word he thinks accurately describes the event.
In his March 17 column, Farah tried to push the idea that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick really didn’t die as a result of the riot because the initial reported cause — that he was hit by a fire extinguisher — may not be true. Farah ranted that this was a “lie” promulgated by the New York Times, though he offered no evidence to support his suggestion that the Times or anyone else knowingly “lied” about Sicknick’s death.
He then complained that two people charged with assaulting Sicknick with chemical spray — and, thus, perhaps contributing to his death — may be innocent:
It remains to be seen if Officer Sicknick was exposed to tear gas, widely used Jan. 6 by police that day – as was pepper spray.
Once again, what is the Justice Department doing here? We know they are attempting with their charges to promulgate a “domestic terrorism” case or cases. Will they make a victim of “domestic terrorism” out of a man who was “in good spirits” the night after his “attack”? Has he become the only “convenient” death of a police officer? Death by pepper spray – hardly a deadly weapon when employed elsewhere by civilians or cops?
Officer Sicknick was a good man. He was a supporter of President Trump. He was well-liked by one and all. It’s bad enough his death was used in a lie – once – and maybe a second time.
Are they deliberately stacking the deck against [George] Tanios and [Julian] Khater, a couple of fast-food managers? Are these two desperadoes a threat to Americans everywhere?
The next day, Farah tried to whitewash Ashli Babbitt, shot and killed by Capitol Police during the riot:
Babbitt was a 14-year Air Force veteran, an unarmed woman who attended the protest of the inexplicable election snafu. Over two months after her death at the hands of a Capitol police officer, no information or details have been released.
[…]Maybe there is an explanation of the only shooting death – for that matter, the only shooting incident – in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
It comes from the unnamed officer who shot Babbitt, by way of his attorney, Mark Schamel. It’s not much of an explanation given there were hundreds of people at the Capitol, perhaps as many as 1 million for the rally.
Apparently, Babbitt’s backpack raised alarms. They compounded the fears of the officers. There were three other officers closer to Babbitt.
But Officer X, we’ll call him, decided that his most prudent course of action was to fire a shot at Ashli Babbitt in a crowded room because she wore a backpack. In the off chance it contained a bomb or weapon, Officer X would take her out.
What did Ashli have in the backpack?
It was a wool sweater and a scarf.
We continue to hear horrific tales from Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Gen. Russel L. Honoré about that day at the Capitol. We’ve heard about the “insurrectionists.” We’ve heard about the “domestic terrorists.” We’ve heard about the “white supremacists.”
The truth is, at the end of the day, it apparently was a backpack that defined the story for Ashli Babbitt – that took her life.
Farah is not going to tell his readers that Babbitt was a conspiracy kook and a QAnon supporter.