J6 Footage Provides Another Narrative

Date: March 14, 2023
Host: Jim Schneider
Guest: Steve Bonta
MP3 | Order

For over two years Americans have been told by the news media and politicians that there was an attempt by armed insurrectionists to overthrow our government and that it was prodded by then President Donald Trump. However, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy released thousands of hours of footage to Tucker Carlson of Fox News who indicated that the footage aired had been vetted by Capitol Hill police before broadcasting it to ensure that there was not any security concerns. What he’s revealed presents a very different narrative concerning what took place on January 6^th.

To help listeners better understand how this new information clarifies events from that day, Crosstalk welcomed Steven Bonta. Steven is the executive senior editor and longtime contributor to The New American magazine. He holds a PhD from Cornell University where he has also taught there and at Penn State University. He is the author of the book, Inside the United Nations.

Was what took place that January 6^th really an insurrection? Steven began by describing an incident that occurred in Bogota, Colombia, in the 1980’s. Heavily armed communist guerrillas seized control of the supreme court building and the situation ended in a violent shootout with the military and hundreds killed. In comparison, what took place at our Capitol was a mass demonstration where a few “hooligans” got carried away. The people had a right to be there as permits had been obtained and as he noted, “Generally insurrectionists don’t secure permits for their actions either.”

Was he claiming that there was no violence that day? He admitted there were windows broken and several hundred people were arrested. However, while things did get out of hand, violence wasn’t the main thrust of what was going on. As he also noted, insurrection is when you try to overthrow the government, usually by violence or force. It involves people with guns and no one was carrying that day.

Jim had Steven comment on numerous aspects of this issue including:

What do we know about the involvement of Jacob Chansley, the QAnon Shaman?
The January 6^th Select Committee Chairman, Bennie Thompson, claimed that the panel never analyzed the footage. He said that a team of employees “…kind of went through the video.”