Trump is pushing a bizarre January 6 conspiracy again - but there’s one big problem

It goes without saying that January 6, the day supporters of Donald Trump engaged in a violent insurrection at the US Capitol, is a pretty bad stain on the Republican’s first stint as president, but now, the convicted felon has once again pushed a conspiracy theory about the infamous 2021 event, calling it a “scam”.

Taking to Truth Social on Sunday, Trump fumed: “THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6. If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies.

“What a SCAM - DO SOMETHING!!!”

Except, it really isn’t so, for the simple reason that January 6 took place when Trump was still president, and Joe Biden was yet to be certified as the winner of the 2020 election, let alone inaugurated (that happened two weeks later).

It isn’t the first time that Trump has alleged that the FBI instigated January 6, as in late September he claimed agents “probably” acted as “agitators and insurrectionists” and not “Law Enforcement Officials”.

All of this pertains to alleged FBI documents reported by conservative site Just The News, but the materials do not blame agents for the January 6 insurrection, but instead focuses on complaints made in an “after-action report” by FBI personnel critical about the bureau’s response on the day.

The information – which the Associated Press couldn’t verify as authentic – states that 274 agents from the FBI’s Washington Field Office “responded to” the US Capitol and other locations, but does not contain any credible evidence suggesting agents acted as “agitators and insurrectionists”.

Even Trump’s current FBI director, Kash Patel, didn’t take the same view as the president in comments to Fox News Digital last month, instead saying that: “Agents were sent into a crowd control mission after the riot was declared by Metro Police – something that goes against FBI standards.”

Over on Twitter/X, users have said Trump’s latest social media post shows “how unstable, how mentally unbalanced [and] how much of a dangerous mixture of dishonesty and insanity” he is:

Representative Jack Kimble also ridiculed his fellow Republican, tweeting that the “Biden defense department let the Japanese destroy our Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour” (we don’t need to explain why that scenario is impossible):

Media organisation MeidasTouch responded by saying it was “25th amendment time”, referencing the part of the US constitution pertaining to the president’s fitness to discharge their duties:

“He is unfit to serve,” added political commentator Brooklyn Dad Defiant:

Trump recently attended a “routine check-up” at Walter Reed Medical Center, with his physician writing that the president “continues to demonstrate excellent overall health”.

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