Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, who led a review of security failures around the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, said Tuesday that the riot was fueled by propaganda after former President Donald Trump fed his supporters “a little BS.”
“We’ve been had by a little propaganda and a superb use of information operation, which is an offensive weapon to shape people’s minds,” Honoré said on Tuesday.
According to the Hill, during a virtual event hosted by the Atlantic Council, the retired general appeared to compare former President Donald Trump’s repetition of falsehoods about a stolen election to a “guy who keeps lying about having a horse. He keeps telling people he has a horse and somebody will give him a saddle.”
“And people who are wanting to believe that message that the election was stolen, they rode with it. And they continue to ride with it,” Honoré said.
Honoré’s remarks come as the nation’s law enforcement and the military forces are grappling with how to root out extremism in their ranks in the wake of revelations that a number of those identified in connection with the riot had a background in the military or law enforcement.
The team led by Honoré laid out a host of recommendations in a report last month that included installing a retractable fence around the Capitol, hiring hundreds more Capitol Police officers and conducting background checks on people with access to the complex.
“We made the recommendation that they need to get the funding to recruit and hire the 233 officers they are short,” Honoré told CNN in an interview on Monday. “We made a recommendation to hire another additional 800 officers. Those recommendations are there, it’s up to Congress to take action.”
Lawmakers continue to consider the recommendations put forward by Honoré’s task force for improving security around the Capitol complex, an issue that has taken on additional urgency after a Capitol Police officer was killed in a vehicle ramming attack outside of the Capitol last week.
