The main focus of our write-up was the fact that this event was disrupted by protesters. But I wanted to zoom in on what the event was about. It was a bit of counter-programming to today’s hearings, a House GOP press conference discussing the treatment of indicted insurrectionists as “political prisoners.”
The members at the event were among the Trumpiest, most extremist members of the House GOP caucus: Greene, Gaetz, Gohmert, Gosar, Good and Biggs. So it’s those folks. But the pattern of in the current GOP is that things start with Trump and those folks and then it slowly becomes party orthodoxy or at least – like the Big Lie – something the majority of the party can’t dispute. Donald Trump has already made clear that this is his position – that they are political prisoners and they should all be released immediately (or charged dropped) – and that he plans to make this a center piece of the 2022 campaign. We should expect this claim to grow among Republicans. This is just a step on that path.
So yeah, crazy stuff. But it won’t stay with those folks. This is part of a process that will grow over the next year building to the 2022 election.
