'We saw with our own eyes': Ex-prosecutor destroys Trump's defense of Jan. 6 'hostages'
During Monday night's episode of MSNBC's The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, guest host Symone Sanders-Townsend spoke with former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade about a "false narrative" Donald Trump is pushing in his defense of January 6 rioters.
Sanders-Townsend played a clip of Trump comparing Minneapolis protesters following George Floyd's 2020 murder to the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
"You remember in Minnesota, when they took over the police station, they took it over and they burned it down?" the MAGA hopeful said. "By the way, what happened to those people? Are those people in jail with the J6 hostages? What happened to those people? They're not in jail with the j6 hostages. I don't call them prisoners, I call them hostages."
Sanders-Townsend said to McQuade, "We know that they are actually not hostages. Those folks went through the legal system. They were found guilty. Donald Trump is trying to cast them, though, as political prisoners. Barbara, how big of a problem is this?"
The former U.S. attorney replied, "This is a huge game of disinformation, Symone, to engage in revisionist history.
“We know, we saw with our own eyes, you were there, that these people committed crimes. They were arrested. They've been charged. They are getting due process in our criminal justice system.
“To refer to them as hostage is just a complete misnomer. And also, the false equivalency, the 'whataboutism,' comparing what they did with some of the George Floyd protesters. We know that many of the George Floyd protesters were peaceful and certainly were not charged with any crimes nor they should have been.
“There were others, who participated in protests during the summer of 2020 who engaged in violence, and those people were properly charged with crimes. And so, to suggest that this is all part of this us versus them game, and it's really important that you, and others in the public eye, push back on this false narrative."