A former California congressman has admitted that he was present at the U.S. Capitol riots on January 6.
Republican Dana Rohrabacher, 73, Orange County’s longest-serving representative, was outed as a participant in the insurrection after a social media account called Capitol Hunters shared photos of him that fateful day in Washington, D.C.
Monday, Rohrabacher, who has moved to Maine, addressed his presence at the deadly insurrection.
He told The Portland Press Herald he “marched to protest, and I thought the election was fraudulent and it should be investigated, and I wanted to express that and be supportive of that demand.”
“But I was not there to make a scene,” he added, “and do things that were unacceptable for anyone to do.”
#SeditionHunters – Thursday’s arrest of Alan Hostetter highlighted extremism in Orange County, CA, but even he is junior-league. We knew OC would send their finest, and here he is, the highest-profile #SeditionVIP yet: former U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA 42). 1/ pic.twitter.com/yJDdR5aR4T
— capitolhunters (@capitolhunters) June 12, 2021
Rohrabacher claimed that he didn’t enter the Capitol Building, where he once represented California’s 42nd district, and he also condemned those who did. “By going into the building,” he said, “they gave the left the ability to direct the discussion of what was going on in a way that was harmful to the things we believe in.”
More than 400 people have been arrested for their participation. The Jan. 6 rioters were supporters of former President Donald Trump, but Rohrabacher echoed the claim by some other Republicans that “leftist provocateurs” were present and responsible for urging the crowd to unlawfully enter the building.
The former congressman lost his seat to Democrat Harley Rouda in 2018 after being investigated for ties to Russia and its leader, President Vladimir Putin. He’s been dubbed “Putin’s favorite Congress member” by his many critics.
President Joe Biden described the insurrection as an “unprecedented assault” on America’s democracy.
The president arrived in Geneva this morning for a summit with Putin, and Rollcall.com said Biden should expect for Putin to reference the insurrection if pressed about his record of how he handles his political rivals.
Putin recently told NBC News Russia has been accused of “election interference, cyberattacks and so on and so forth. And not once, not once, not one time, did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof. Just unfounded accusations.”
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