Former GOP Candidate Saccone Cheered From Outside As Rioters Broke Down Capitol Gates

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Former Republican congressional candidate and prominent Trump ally Rick Saccone lost an adjunct teaching job at a private Catholic college Wednesday after video surfaced of him standing on the Capitol grounds and cheering on the attack on the nation’s legislature. 

Now, Saccone says his coup cheerleading was all just one big misunderstood “metaphor.” 

“We’re storming the Capitol!” Saccone said in a video he posted to Facebook, which showed him in a crowd of people outside the Capitol Building. 

“They broke down the gates!” he continued. “They’re macing them up there. We’re trying to run out all of the evil people and all the RINOs that have betrayed our president. We’re going to run them out of their offices!” 

The former state representative lost his 2018 special election, in a district Trump had won by a wide margin in 2016, to Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA) — despite help from the President himself

Saccone also wrote on Facebook Wednesday: “We are storming the capitol. Our vanguard has broken thru the barricades. We will save this nation. Are u with me?” 

Not so subtle. But Saccone claimed after his views gained some attention that he wasn’t serious about exhorting people to do violence. 

“It could seem like that to someone that doesn’t know me,” he told KDKA. “Nobody that listens to that would think, when you say ‘save the nation’ or ‘drain the swamp’ or ‘throw out the RINOs’ that you’re actually going to do any physical violence. Those are figures of speech.” 

Saint Vincent College apparently wasn’t convinced. Saccone resigned from his teaching position there after two decades at the school. 

“As we noted yesterday, we became aware of a video posted by an individual who had served as an adjunct faculty member here which documented his participation in the demonstration which took place,” the college’s president, Paul R. Taylor, said in a statement Thursday. 

“Concerned that his actions did not and do not reflect our mission, we immediately commenced an internal investigation of the matter,” Taylor added. “As a result, the individual has submitted and we have accepted his letter of resignation, effective immediately.”

Amid the early conspiracy theorizing and responsibility-dodging from Republicans like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), asserting the Capitol siege had actually been perpetrated by “antifa agitators,” Saccone served as a useful example: This was a GOP job through and through. 

Saccone’s competitor in the 2018 race made the point himself. 

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Five dead make for one hell of a metaphor, dickhead.

  2. Another figure of speech:

    “You’re fired” doesn’t mean you will be shot out of a cannon or lit on fire.

  3. Saccone needs to be charged with sedition as well. His attendance at the riot and his imploring of his followers to attack the capital are evidence aplenty of a sedition charge.

    He can spend the next 20 years in a Supermax federal prison extolling the virtues of the Donald Trump presidency.

  4. I guess ‘metaphor’ doesn’t mean what he ‘thinks’ it means…it’s all hip until sentient human beings call you on it…

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

26 more replies

Participants

Avatar for discobot Avatar for paulw Avatar for josephebacon Avatar for richardinjax Avatar for sysprog Avatar for blandsten Avatar for brutus1910 Avatar for tigersharktoo Avatar for irasdad Avatar for sandyh Avatar for DuckmanGR Avatar for chuck_voellinger Avatar for lastroth Avatar for ifeveroheverawiztherewas Avatar for left_in_washington_state Avatar for tao Avatar for riverstreet Avatar for jinnj Avatar for jmacaz Avatar for brian512 Avatar for maximus Avatar for yiprock Avatar for philmore Avatar for rascal_crone

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: