It appears that at least 13 elected state officials—all of them Republicans—participated in the events surrounding the storming of the nation’s Capitol building during the Trump-incited riots. So far, the insurrection has resulted in the deaths of five people, including one Capitol Police officer, as well as injuries to dozens of other law enforcement officials.
Some of these participants have since attempted to hide the extent of their participation by deleting social media messages, photographs and videos of themselves they had proudly posted earlier in the week. Others appear to be deliberately playing down and minimizing their roles in order to distance themselves from the violence that eventually occurred. Still others appear to be relying on conspiracy theories and outright denial as they deflect blame for their roles in instigating and fostering the violence that ultimately resulted.
As reported Thursday by Reid Wilson, writing for The Hill, when the number was a little smaller:
At least six Republican state legislators from across the nation participated in events surrounding the attempted insurrection at the United States Capitol on Wednesday.
News reports and social media posts showed at least one of the legislators, West Virginia Del. Derrick Evans (R), was among the violent mob that broke into the Capitol building. Evans, who was only recently sworn into office, posted a video of himself entering the building.
A newly elected delegate from the 19th District in West Virginia, Evans deleted the video depicting himself breaking into the Capitol, but it has been re-posted and can be seen on Reddit. In the video Evans can be heard urging others to break into the building: “We’re going in,” he says.
As reported Thursday by Fox 59 in Charleston, the Republican Speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates stated that Evans will “need to answer” for his participation in the event. The Democratic leader of the Minority Caucus, Stephen Baldwin, released a statement Wednesday, calling for Evans’ resignation and prosecution.
“West Virginia Delegate Derrick Evans was among the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. today to disrupt the certification of the presidential election. He must be held accountable for participating in an act of insurrection against the United States government and risking the lives of lawmakers and Capitol police. The West Virginia Democratic Party calls for his immediate resignation from the House of Delegates and that he be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Evans says he will not resign and has retained counsel. It appears he is going to need it. As reported by CNBC Friday afternoon, he has now been criminally charged and taken into custody.
A Republican member of the West Virginia House of Delegates has been charged in connection with being part of a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters who invaded the U.S. Capitol earlier this week, the Justice Department said Friday.
Del. Derrick Evans had filmed himself and others going into the Capitol on Wednesday. “We’re in! Keep it moving, baby!,” Evans has said on a video posted on social media.
Evans was charged with illegally entering the Capitol.
Evans was filmed on Friday, being taken out of his house in handcuffs.
Another Republican state official involved in the riot has been identified as Terri Lynn Weaver. Weaver, a COVID-19 denier and member of the Tennessee House (40th District) claims she saw no violence, even as she tweeted a photograph of the mob at the base of the Capitol building. She later claimed, without basis, that any violence was likely the result of “antifa.”
Weaver raised the possibility, without evidence, that the Trump supporters who violently broke into the U.S. Capitol were members of antifa. She also claimed that a protest outside the Tennessee Capitol this summer, which involved a group of demonstrators setting up a campsite for nearly two months and using chalk to draw on state property, was worse.
A Virginia gubernatorial candidate and state senator named Amanda Chase (11th District) was also present at the siege. Chase furiously denied that any violence occurred during the insurrection events—at least on the part of the rioters.
Chase, who has called for the institution of martial law in the face of a free and fair election that her party lost, accused Capitol Police officers of murder in the shooting death of a California woman inside the Capitol building in a post on Facebook.
Chase’s Facebook account has now been suspended and she is facing calls for her resignation.
State Sen. Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania has been instrumental in that Commonwealth for advancing bogus “election fraud” theories. He notably spoke at an unmasked hearing in November organized by the Republican majority caucus of the Pennsylvania Senate, for purposes of promulgating election conspiracy-mongering and challenging the election results. A few days later, Mastriano revealed that he had tested positive for COVID-19 after a pre-screening test that was administered just before a visit with Donald Trump.
Mastriano, who purportedly has gubernatorial ambitions in Pennsylvania, organized a bus trip to the Trump rally from Chambersburg. He was photographed (also unmasked) at the rally with former GOP state lawmaker Rick Saccone, but denied participating in the march towards the capitol.
However, as noted in the York Dispatch, this denial doesn’t seem to correlate well with the statement of Saccone, recorded just prior to the violence.
Mastriano's statement followed pictures posted on Facebook showing Mastriano and former GOP state lawmaker Rick Saccone attending the Trump rally.
In a since-deleted post, Saccone said he was "storming" the Capitol.
"We are storming the capitol. Our vanguard has broken thru the barricades. We will save this nation," Saccone wrote. "Are u with me?"
Pennsylvania Democratic state Sen. Tim Kearney has called for Mastriano’s resignation.
Republican Missouri state Rep. Justin Hill (108th District) previously led a contentious but successful effort to pass a resolution declaring that state’s lawmakers had “no faith” in the results of the 2020 election. That resolution specifically called on Congress to refuse to certify Missouri’s Electoral College votes. Hill, a former police officer, skipped his own swearing-in ceremony in order to attend the Trump rally.
Hill now claims he wasn’t close enough to see anything, but is “disappointed” with the violence that did occur. As reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, his colleagues in the Missouri statehouse were not particularly impressed.
His absence from the first day of the legislative session was noted on Twitter by the Missouri House Democratic Campaign Committee.
“Any elected official who skips taking their oath of office to the Missouri Constitution in order to support insurrection is not fit for office. Resign,” the tweet said.
Prior to the Trump-incited riot at the Capitol, Meshawn Maddock and her husband, Michigan state Rep. Matt Maddock, spoke to a crowd of insurrectionists at the base of the Capitol building, urging Trump’s minions to “never stop fighting.” According to the Detroit Free Press, Ms. Maddock, a GOP activist slated to become co-chair of the state’s Republican Party, now claims she ”did not expressly advocate entering the Capitol by force.” She also organized buses to attend the Trump rally. As described in the Free Press article, on Monday, before the insurrection and rioting had occurred, Ms. Maddock was vocal in here support of Trump’s failed coup.
"As a leader for Republicans in Michigan, I’m going to stand shoulder to shoulder with Americans that know voter fraud is real," she said in a text message. "Voters no longer trust the system and we want people prosecuted. Now is not the time for summer soldiers and sunshine Patriots, now is the time for brave men to do the right thing.”
While at the rally, she posted a video in which a man can be heard shouting “We need to march on the Capitol when we are done here and drag these people out of power.”
The DLCC has a running list of the other insurgents who hold elected office.
Taken as a whole, all of these individuals share some culpability in the violence and property destruction that ultimately occurred. Some, such as Evans, had direct involvement in actual acts of property destruction and trespass. Others, such as the Maddocks, helped incite the crowds but claim they did not personally perform any acts of terror. Some actions, such as those of Mastriano, assisted in organizing and transport of the terrorists to the riot, while their roles in the actual event are unclear.
But all of them directly supported and encouraged the fiction that sparked the violence in the first place: the false notion that Donald Trump’s failure to win the 2020 election was the result of some mythical fraud, rather than his own failings as a candidate, a president, and as a human being, as judged by the American people in a free and fair election. All of these people were so invested in this corrosive phony narrative, they participated in and abetted a seditious rally whose only purpose was to incite violence.
And when that violence inevitably occurred, all of them are now either blatantly denying, deflecting, and dismissing their own culpability.