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Ali Alexander, the organizer behind the “Stop the Steal” movement, said three Republican congressmen helped him plan the January 6 rally that preceded the armed insurrection at the Capitol that left five dead.
Alexander said Reps. Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, and Paul Gosar helped him plan the event that occurred as Congress was getting ready to certify the electoral vote for President-elect Joe Biden, The Washington Post reported.
“We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” Alexander said in a since-deleted Periscope video.
He added to The Post that the plan was to “change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.”
A spokeswoman for Gosar told Insider: “The Congressman has no comment at this time.”
Daniel Stefanski, spokesperson for Rep. Andy Biggs told Insider that Alexander’s claims were “absolutely false.”
“Congressman Biggs is not aware of hearing of or meeting Mr. Alexander at any point — let alone working with him to organize some part of a planned protest on January 6. He did not have any contact with protesters or rioters, nor did he ever encourage or foster the rally or protests on January 6,” Stefanski said.
Insider could not reach Brooks for comment at the time of publication, but in an official statement from his office said he did not know that the siege on the Capitol would occur after he spoke at a rally preceding it.
“Further, I spoke very early in the political rally. There was music, there was my speech, there was more music, then there was some number of speakers, then a couple hours or so later, President Trump began speaking,” Brooks said.
“I ask this question, if my remarks were as inspirational as the Socialist Democrats and their Fake News Media allies want the public to believe, why didn’t the Trump rally participants, after my remarks, immediately get up and storm the Capitol?” the statement said.
On January 6, Trump supporters breached the US Capitol and clashed with law enforcement halting the joint session of Congress as lawmakers were debating challenges to electoral votes ahead of certifying Biden’s election. Five people died, including a Capitol Police officer and a woman who was shot by law enforcement.
One week later, The House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump for “incitement of insurrection,” for his role in the armed insurrection.
Read more:’It was degrading’: Black Capitol custodial staff talk about what it felt like to clean up the mess left by violent pro-Trump white supremacists
Trump had previously made false and baseless accusations of voter fraud and made false assertions that Vice President Mike Pence, who oversaw the certification process in the joint session of Congress, could “decertify” the votes and give him a second term.
Other Republicans, including Biggs, Brooks, and Gosar, have also come under scrutiny for their language in perpetuating Trump’s false narrative.
The Daily Beast reported that Alexander, a …read more
Source:: Business Insider
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