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

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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. 

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