Matt Gaetz claims MAGA mob which stormed Capitol was Antifa ‘masquerading as Trump supporters’
Matt Gaetz #MattGaetz
Donald Trump’s most fervent followers are beginning to claim that the mob that overran the Capitol on Wednesday were not MAGA supporters, but instead were Antifa ‘masquerading’ as the president’s backers.
Matt Gaetz, a Republican congressman for Florida known for his devotion to the president, told the House he did not believe they were Trump supporters who stormed the building.
He declared there was ‘some pretty compelling evidence from a facial recognition company showing that some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters, but were masquerading as Trump supporters, and in fact were members of the violent terrorist group Antifa.’
Matt Gaetz, the Florida congressman, said Antifa stormed Congress ‘masquerading’ as MAGA
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Gaetz added: ‘Now we should seek to build America up, not tear her down and destroy her.
‘I was just glad that for at least one day I did not hear my Democrat colleagues calling to defund the police.’
Gaetz appeared to be referring to a report in The Washington Times, in which an unnamed retired military officer told the paper that the firm XRVision used its software to do facial recognition of protesters.
The military officer told the paper that XRVision had identified two of those inside the Senate as Philadelphia Antifa supporters.
XRVision, founded in Singapore in 2015 and based in New York City, is yet to respond to DailyMail.com’s request for confirmation of the identification.
Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham then quoted The Washington Times’s report on her show.
Laura Ingraham on her Fox News show quoted The Washington Times’ report
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She said the behavior was incompatible with Trump supporters.
‘Actions we saw today do not represent this movement,’ she told her viewers. ‘The Washington Times is reporting today that at least two Antifa were spotted in the crowd.’
Sarah Palin spoke to Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum on Wednesday evening, and joined in the chorus.
‘We don’t know who all were the instigators in these horrible things that happened today, I think a lot of it is the Antifa folks,’ she claimed, citing ‘pictures’ sent to her.
On Newsmax, anchor Greg Kelly said that ‘Trump supporters don’t do these things’.
‘We’ve heard about outside agitators all summer long with the Black Lives Matter protests that all the looting was done by, you know, foreign sources from some far away place,’ he declared.
‘Look, these don’t look like Trump supporters. Trump supporters don’t do these things.’
Other Trump supporters quickly embraced the idea.
Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO, tweeted a series of clips which he said showed Antifa.
‘This was filmed next to the capital by a family member! Antifa is responsible for the attacks… they already have been found out by facial recognition!’
It was unclear why he thought the MAGA-hatted crowd was comprised of secret Leftist agitators.
He retweeted a picture of rioters in Congress, captioned: ‘Dear Sheeple, this is A.N.T.I.F.A.’
Sidney Powell, the lawyer who was briefly part of Trump’s ‘elite strike-force’ of Rudy Giuliani-led election challengers, before being forced out and filing suits on her own, also embraced the idea.
She tweeted an internet image from November which encouraged Antifa supporters encouraging others to disguise themselves in MAGA hats.
‘#AntifaCapitalAssault happened today,’ she said.
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