In Texas, some tea party Republicans celebrate the riot: It’s ‘taking back OUR HOUSE!’
Guess who was happy watching the U.S. Capitol under militia attack Wednesday?
You guessed it: Texas’ tea party crowd.
In the middle of a patriot-movement attack on our nation’s heart, the darkest factions in the state’s Republican Party either celebrated or rushed to share a fake cover story diverting blame.
Leading the way: Republican Party of Texas sergeant-at-arms Walter West II of Montgomery County, who posted a series of volatile comments including one labeled “Wild Protest” with the comment: “You Accepted ANTIFA burning down your cities... Now Deal with them taking back OUR HOUSE!”
Thankfully, West is now the former sergeant-at-arms.
Co-founder Julie McCarty of the Grapevine-based True Texas Project, the old NE Tarrant Tea Party, wrote Thursday: “I keep hearing, ‘Violence is never OK.’ Is that true? ... A war was fought for our independence, and if I was a gambler I’d bet on that happening again.”
She added later, “I’m ok with our Congressmen feeling a little fear of the people!”
Outgoing state Rep. Bill Zedler of Arlington, a Freedom Caucus member during his days in the Texas House, reposted a series of comments falsely blaming antifa, an anti-neo-Nazi militant group.
“Where is all the indignation when we have these thugs?” he wrote, questioning the election results and saying Congress has “disenfranchised 74 million voters.”
Forney Republican Ray Myers, a tea party activist who has called himself a white nationalist, wrote on Facebook about Congress’ “criminal butchery of our most sacred right of election integrity” and said “there is a price to be paid.”
Myers also diverted blame falsely to antifa militants.
When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterated that he would not overrule the voters and courts, Myers wrote McConnell “is a Traitor to the United States of America.”
Mineola Republican Mary Lou Bruner, a former candidate for the State Board of Education, also shifted all blame.
“The whole incident was staged,” she wrote on Facebook. “The DC police escorted 4 bus-loads of Antifa people into DC to cause trouble.”
Former Texas Railroad Commission chairwoman Elizabeth Ames Coleman, now a resident of Mississippi, shared a Facebook post saying “Trump supporters did NOT storm the Capitol.”
Later, she shared an honest National Review commentary saying that the crowd was mostly loyal to defeated President Donald Trump and that it is not helpful to sustain “a steady stream of lies and conspiracy theories.”
In Houston, conservative activist and former candidate Tex Christopher was banned by Houston Young Republicans after he wrote on Facebook: “WE’RE NOT PLAYING!!!! TIME FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO FEAR WE THE PEOPLE NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!!!!!!”
Outgoing state Rep. Jonathan Stickland of Bedford reveled in comparing the violent riot to a 2013 abortion-rights protest at the Texas Capitol during a Texas Senate filibuster.
In 2013, with crowds screaming inside and outside the Senate gallery, state Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth briefly killed a bill tightening abortion restrictions. But the crowd wasn’t destructive, and claims of tossed bags of urine or feces were not supported by police reports.
Stickland wrote, “I remember... When liberals stormed the Texas Capitol by the tens of thousands. Trashed the Capitol and the grounds around it. They disrupted the legislative process on purpose. Assaulted law enforcement. Exposed their breasts. ... What did the left do? They celebrated it as a victory.”
When a follower asked Stickland’s point, he wrote: “the left has (for a long time) encouraged mobs as a way to change outcomes.”
The previous day, he had posted “Buckle up friends, it’s about to get very serious.”
In more ways than one.
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 11:54 AM.
