Copeland's Corner: December 1, 2023

Some of Trump's January 6 foot soldiers are now claiming to have been duped by the right-wing echo chamber.

As 2023 draws to a close, we inch closer to the March 2024 federal trial of Donald Trump for his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol that imperiled (and continues to imperil) our American democracy. The federal indictment returned by a grand jury last summer accuses Trump of engaging in a conspiracy “to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using false claims of election fraud to obstruct the government function by which those results are collected, counted and certified.” The former president faces actual jail time if convicted. While Trump’s legal travails regarding the insurrection are garnering widespread attention, with few exceptions, we aren’t getting a lot of reporting on how his January 6 foot soldiers are faring.

As of this writing, more than 1200 people have been charged in the attack with over 400 of them receiving jail sentences. There are more prosecutions to come as federal law enforcement continues to track down and identify those who trashed our center of government, threatened the lives of our duly elected representatives, and caused grievous injury and death to members of the Capitol police. Those given the longest sentences have been members of hate groups, like the leaders of the Oath Keepers, who were convicted of sedition and given years behind bars. However, these ideological extremists don’t represent the majority of those who stormed the Capitol that January day. A lot of them were normal, ordinary Americans who are now claiming to have been duped by the right-wing echo chamber.

Mitchell Todd Gardener is serving a 55-month federal prison sentence for his actions on that day, which included hosing down Capitol police officers with a fire extinguisher-sized canister of pepper spray, bashing in a Capitol window and using it to enter Senate offices as well as repeatedly yelling for his fellow rioters to “pull the police out” of the building. With good behavior and time served, Gardener will be eligible for release in the summer of 2025. However, he wants out sooner.

This week, Gardener filed a “Motion for Compassionate Release and/or Reduction of Sentence,” claiming that he was led down the garden path by a cadre of prominent Americans he believed to be “patriots,” FOX News talking heads and Donald Trump himself. He says that they all convinced him that the destruction of the country was imminent if citizens such as himself did not fight to protect it. He truly believed the Big Lie that Trump had “mountains of factual evidence” that the 2020 election had been stolen from him and the votes of his supporters nullified. Gardener wrote in the motion that Trump manipulated him into believing that “it was an obligation or patriotic duty to ensure the saving of the republic.” He says that if it weren’t for this deliberate manipulation, he would be home with his family working and paying his taxes. He also would have been there for his grandparents, both of whom died during his incarceration.

It's simple to read stories like this and think, “Screw them. If they were stupid enough to believe Trump’s lies, then they deserve what they get.” I can fully understand that sentiment. The Big Lie is so ludicrous it boggles the mind that millions of Americans still believe it. But, if we’re to be fair, we have to acknowledge the fact that these people were brainwashed, and they didn’t brainwash themselves.

Whereas most people in recent generations have known that presidents and politicians lie, we still, more often than not, give them the benefit of the doubt. Especially when it comes to big issues, such as election integrity. Here you have the most powerful man in the world saying that the election was not secure. There were lots of people inclined to believe him if only because of the office he held. When you add to that the FOX News drumbeat that the election was stolen, reportage that Fox admitted they were aware was untrue when they settled their defamation suit with the company that makes Dominion voting machines for nearly $8 billion, plus a parade of right-wing media stars spewing the same garbage in tandem, you can see how a lot of these people were duped. You can see how they were brainwashed into sacrificing their very freedom for their cult.

That said, at what point does personal responsibility come in here? Yes, Gardener and others of his ilk were deceived, but the truth was always as accessible as simply changing the cable channel.