Viral social media posts claimed that two outstanding members within the riot that overtook Capitol Hill Wednesday have been truly leftists or Antifa members:
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin superior this conspiracy as properly, discussing it throughout an interview on Fox Information, saying: “Bear in mind, we do not know who all have been the instigators on this, of those horrible issues that occurred at present. I believe numerous it’s the Antifa of us. I have been despatched footage of the identical characters who have been captured on photos at present storming the Capitol, as had been in protests on the opposite aspect of politics earlier in the summertime.” Palin additionally shared a picture from the protest on her Twitter and inspired the media to “LOOK IN TO WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE.”
The person pictured within the first tweet is, in actual fact, a very long time QAnon supporter named Jake Angeli, described as a “fixture at Arizona right-wing political rallies over the previous yr” by the Arizona Republic, the biggest newspaper within the state. The image of Angeli at a BLM march is cropped; the full image reveals that he was carrying an indication saying,“Q despatched me.” Angeli was interviewed by an Arizona Republic reporter in Might of 2020 and had excessive reward for Trump. And shortly after the 2020 presidential election, Angeli spoke at a pro-Trump rally and claimed that the election “has not been known as.”
A higher quality model of the picture of the bearded man in a hoodie with Angeli reveals that, opposite to what has been claimed in most of the posts, the tattoo on his hand will not be a hammer and sickle: It’s a symbol from a online game known as “Dishonored.” This man has not been recognized, however the image from the Philly Antifa web site is of a person whom the Philly Antifa group was trying to publicly out as a neo-Nazi so as to disgrace him. Analyzing the pictures of the 2 males means that they’re not the identical particular person: Tattoos on their palms, for instance, don’t match up (On the Philly Antifa website, you possibly can see a photograph displaying tattoos on the person’s proper hand for those who scroll to the underside of this post). Regardless, there’s not any proof to recommend that the person pictured with Angeli is a leftist.
Lin Wooden, Sarah Palin, and others who’ve superior this conspiracy idea have incorrectly recognized the 2 males in query, and there’s presently no proof that Antifa was behind the assault on Congress undertaken by Trump supporters on Wednesday.
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