What Happened Wednesday Pt. 1: We Were There
Sun., Jan. 10. 2021 6:57pm EST
J. Jackson from ApologetiX here again.
As promised, here's my testimony about what I saw and heard while in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, January 6:
MY EYEWITNESS & EARWITNESS ACCOUNT
In the days since Wednesday's events in Washington D.C., I have heard the political rhetoric from multitudes of media figures and politicians who hate President Trump, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. I am appalled at the lies they are speaking about his role in Wednesday's events. I was there. And unlike them, I'm not lying.
We got there at about 6:45 a.m. This was the biggest rally I've been to — bigger than the ones on November 11 and December 12. The crowd stretched from the White House ellipse to the Washington Monument. We were at the assembly near the White House until about 1 p.m., as the President finished speaking. Many observers believe there were over a million people, and there was absolutely zero unrest.
The President's speech was very low-key and anything but rabble-rousing, mainly reviewing the facts of the election fraud in each particular contested state. I would imagine most of us in the audience were already familiar with that. As he was making his final remarks, we began the peaceful march to the Capitol building. He did not go along in that march nor did he give fiery marching orders.
One thing that did happen at about the same time — although I didn't know it — was that Vice President Pence released his statement (while President Trump was still speaking) that he would not challenge the electors. Some people in the crowd apparently did find that out and were extremely disappointed, but I didn't hear anybody say that, and I didn't find it out till later. Cell phone service was terrible, as it was at the previous events, so none of us four could effectively follow news stuff on Twitter.
I have read and heard many things (both from the mainstream media, the conservative media, Twitter, etc.) about the stuff that happened at the Capitol after the crowd arrived. The four of us took a while getting there, because we stopped along the way to buy caps and hoodies, because it was even colder than we'd anticipated. And one of us needed to stop a few times because of some physical pain.
At the time when the break-in happened at the Capitol, we were in the general area, but not close enough to see specific people or what they were doing. We could clearly see the tremendous size crowd at the Capitol, but we were way in the back on the outskirts of the very, very long lawn, because a couple of us had backaches from standing in one place for so many hours and some of us were looking for a port-a-potty. There was actually a gap between the main crowd and the rest of us in the back.
We had already been planning to leave for home, because it was cold, and we'd been outside since early morning. Furthermore, the speakers were done (and there were no speakers at the Capitol), and we'd already had a chance to go see the building itself, point our hands in the direction of the building, and pray, which something Tom Milnes had wanted to do from the start of our trip.
In fact, on the outskirts (before any of us were aware of any of the activity), there were a number of spontaneous small prayer circles, and we and our wives participated in one circle, and Tom and I inadvertently started another, because people saw us praying a few minutes later.
From our vantage point, we could see that it looked like some people were on the steps of the Capitol, but we were unaware that anybody had broken in or breached any protocol.
DID PRESIDENT TRUMP INCITE UNREST?
At no time at any point at the event at the White House (we were there for over six hours) or on our way to the Capitol did we see or hear anybody inciting anybody else to violence or to invade the Capitol building. That includes President Trump, the numerous speakers before him or anybody in the crowd.
Video evidence of those speeches exists, so anybody who has any doubts whatsoever can fact check that if social media hasn't totally censored it. Here's a key excerpt: "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."
They could also fact check President Trump's tweet at 2:38 p.m. in which he said: "Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!"
They could also reference his tweet at 3:13 p.m. in which he said: "I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!"
But now they can't reference those tweets, because Twitter has suspended his account permanently.
They would have been able to watch his one-minute video a little bit later in which he expressed the same sentiment and told people get out of the Capitol and respect the curfew, but Twitter saw fit to delete it that very day, because they claim "it violated the Twitter rules."
You can see and hear the one-minute video for yourself here. It is included in an article about it by Christian conservative talk-show host Charlie Kirk:
https://charliekirk.com/news/twitter-stamps-trumps-video-telling-protestors-to-go-home-in-peace-as-a-risk-of-violence/
Think about that: The President called for peace and for protesters to go home, and the same social media platforms that are blaming him for the violence deleted his video and suspended his account. And now they've gone after his family and notable conservative voices who've supported him. Who's next?
I'm not a big fan of The Wall Street Journal, but even they published the following opinion piece in Sunday's edition:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-trump-isnt-guilty-of-incitement-11610303966
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