On the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 MAGA attack at the U.S. Capitol, we published a list of times President Donald Trump made a public effort last year to rewrite and reframe the 2021 event. Well, apparently, the White House also commemorated the date by publishing its own release — one that explicitly rewrites and reframes the events of Jan. 6.
Since the start of Trump’s second term, the White House websites — and most federal government websites, for that matter — have become little more than tabloid rags, passing along whatever propaganda has become popular in the MAGA world, or creating new propaganda to serve to ignorant MAGA rubes like fresh meat for the rabid, salivating dogs. So, it isn’t terribly surprising that on Tuesday, the Trump administration’s recent “news” release sought to justify Trump’s pardoning of Jan. 6 rioters, blame Democrats and, specifically, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, for allowing the riot to happen, and, of course, continue to push the lie that the 2020 election was rigged.
“On his first day back in office, January 20, 2025, President Trump issued sweeping blanket pardons and commutations for nearly 1,600 patriotic Americans prosecuted for their presence at the Capitol—many mere trespassers or peaceful protesters treated as insurrectionists by a weaponized Biden DOJ,” the White House wrote. “He fully pardoned most, commuted sentences, and ordered immediate release of those still imprisoned, ending years of harsh solitary confinement, denied due process, and family separation for exercising their First Amendment rights.”
The administration claimed those Trump pardoned “were unfairly targeted, overcharged, and used as political examples.” Did the White House bother with providing a single example of a convict who was overcharged? Of course not. Are we supposed to take it at face value that investigators combed through nearly 1,600 and found that nearly 1,600 people were treated unfairly? Yes — otherwise, you must have Trump Derangement Syndrome.
The Trump administration can’t even seem to make up its mind about whether or not a riot even happened on Jan. 6. Because which is it? Were the nearly 1,6000 convicts that Trump pardoned actually peaceful patriots being persecuted by former President Joe Biden’s administration, or were they rioters whom Pelosi and the Democrats failed to prevent from rioting?
From the White House:
Video and audio recordings, including unaired HBO footage from her own daughter, show Nancy Pelosi repeatedly acknowledging responsibility for the catastrophic security failures—admitting “We have totally failed” and “I take full responsibility” for not having the National Guard pre-deployed, despite intelligence warnings and President Trump’s offers of troops that were ignored under her leadership as Speaker.
The Democrats masterfully reversed reality after January 6, branding peaceful patriotic protesters as “insurrectionists” and framing the event as a violent coup attempt orchestrated by Trump—despite no evidence of armed rebellion or intent to overthrow the government.
Seriously — where to even start?
I know — let’s start with a fact-check of the White House’s statements on Pelosi, which were echoed by Trump the same day during a speech at a retreat for House Republicans.
From CNN:
Trump falsely claimed that Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who was House speaker at the time of the riot, “was offered 10,000 soldiers, National Guard soldiers, whatever you want – ‘No, I don’t want them.’” He added: “Nancy got caught when her daughter did a documentary” in which, Trump claimed, “She has her mother saying, ‘It’s my fault, I should’ve taken the soldiers.’”
But Pelosi’s filmmaker daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, didn’t film her saying “I should’ve taken the soldiers.” And there is no evidence Pelosi ever turned down a Trump offer of 10,000 National Guard troops; it is the president, not the speaker, who is in charge of the District of Columbia National Guard, so Pelosi wouldn’t have had the power to reject such an offer even if she had received it, which she has steadfastly said she never did.
In a video recorded by Alexandra Pelosi on January 6 and later obtained by House Republicans, Nancy Pelosi was shown expressing frustration at the inadequate security at the Capitol, and she said at one point, “I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more.” But that general statement is clearly not a specific admission that she had rejected a Trump offer of 10,000 troops. And in another part of the video, she said, “Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?” That question undercuts, rather than corroborates, Trump’s narrative that Pelosi turned down the National Guard.
But don’t expect video footage that shows the full context of Pelosi’s statements to dissuade Trump or his minions, who are far too invested in the lie to start acknowledging facts now. After all, we have all seen plenty of video footage, showing us plainly that thousands of Jan. 6 rioters “broke through barricades, brutally assaulted police officers, scaled walls, broke into and vandalized the offices of government officials, and threatened the very lives of legislators, all in an attempt to stop the certification of votes in a free and fair election that their messiah lost,” as I wrote in our previous report. Yet, the White House is still out here absurdly claiming there was “no evidence” of a riot or an attempt to overthrow the government.
And that line about how “Democrats masterfully reversed reality” is just pure projection.
But let’s just say it’s true that Pelosi had the authority to reject Guard troops that day. (She didn’t. You won’t find a single law that would give the House speaker that authority, and Trump has already shown this year that no one who isn’t a federal judge or a Supreme Court justice will stop him from doing whatever he wants with the National Guard.) Even if what the White House wrote wasn’t pure MAGA fiction, it would still miss the point about why Trump is to blame for the attack at the U.S. Capitol.
Nancy Pelosi didn’t spend the month and a half leading up to Jan. 6 spreading the round-the-clock election fraud propaganda that sent rioters to the Capitol in the first place. As I wrote previously, Trump “presented zero evidence to substantiate his claims, which had been denied, debunked and denounced by dozens of judges across lower courts, appellate courts and the Supreme Court, the former head of election cybersecurity — whom Trump fired for refusing to go along with his lie — Trump’s own attorney general, his own vice president, and the Department of Justice.” Trump directly inspired the domestic terrorist attack with his big lie, and now, the White House — while desperately trying to shift that blame to Pelosi and the Democrats — is continuing to perpetuate that lie.
“In truth, it was the Democrats who staged the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election, ignoring widespread irregularities, and weaponizing federal agencies to hunt down dissenters, all while Pelosi’s own security lapses invited the chaos they later exploited to seize and consolidate power,” the White House wrote. “This gaslighting narrative allowed them to persecute innocent Americans, silence opposition, and distract from their own role in undermining democracy.”
Again with the projection. “Gaslighting narrative”? “Undermining democracy”? Trump tried to upend democracy after losing in 2020, and he has spent the last five years gaslighting America in an effort to change the narrative that reflects demonstrable reality.
What “widespread irregularities” were discovered during the 2020 election? Has Trump or his people ever been able to name even one irregularity? After all, he made very specific claims in 2020. He said voting machines were rigged to somehow abracadabra Trump votes into Biden votes. He said dead people were being registered to vote Democrat en masse. He said election workers were stuffing ballots. He said mail-in voting was being exploited to cheat. Neither he nor his legal team ever produced evidence to substantiate any of this, and more than 60 courts told him so.
Again, the White House is now trying to blame everyone but Trump for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — which it also claims didn’t actually happen — while promoting the same lie that actually caused it.
That’s exactly what “gaslighting” actually is. And no one who is equipped to think for themselves is going to buy it.
SEE ALSO:
All The Times Trump Tried To Reframe And Rewrite Jan. 6
5 Years After Jan. 6: What Did America Actually Learn?
Donald Trump Claims ‘Biden FBI’ Infiltrated Jan. 6
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