Washington (AP) - A video clip showing liberals dressing up as supporters of former President Donald Trump before taking part in the Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol is not a proof that the riot was an inside job.
CLAIM: A video clip shows liberals dressing up as supporters of former President Donald Trump before taking part in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, proving the riot was an inside job.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The clip was filmed by comedian Walter Masterson and content creator Peter Scattini, who posed as Trump-friendly reporters on Jan. 6, 2021, to interview people at the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Capitol attack. Both men posted videos showing extensive footage from the day’s events, which include the shot of them donning Trump paraphernalia and patriotic garb in an effort to blend in with the crowds. They explain in the videos that they went to the rally to make comedic content and express disbelief about what happened.
THE FACTS: Hundreds of people have been convicted or pleaded guilty for their role in the Jan. 6 riot, but more than three years later some on social media are still claiming it was the work of the government itself.
In the clip, a man wearing a “Make America Great Again’’ shirt stands next to a parked car while adding an American flag mask and baseball cap to his ensemble. He offers a couple of options to the man behind the camera, including a Trump 2020 cap and another American flag mask.
“I’m not f---king with you, you’ve got to blend in,” the man on camera says. “I know you can’t stomach wearing it, but like, you need to blend in. You have to have the visual identifier.”
An Instagram post that shared the clip added a misspelled caption to it reading: “Jan 6th, was a sit up!” It was an inside job!” A second caption describes the footage as “liberals disguising themselves as Trump supporters to attack the Capital on January 6th.”
Another post on Instagram that used only the second caption, asking users to “watch it for yourself and decide,” in reference to the clip, had received more than 92,200 likes as of Monday.
Although the two men are indeed disguising themselves as Trump supporters, they are not doing so to attack the Capitol, as federal agents or otherwise.
Masterson, the man on camera, and Scattini, who filmed the clip, pretended to be Trump-friendly reporters at the “Stop the Steal” rally to interview protestors for comedy videos. Both posted the resulting videos on their YouTube channels after the riot, which included the clip spreading online as well as extensive additional footage.
“So I’m sorry that this video is kind of a downer,” Scattini says at the end of his video. “I did not mean for it to be this serious. I thought we were going to be there shooting comedy videos all day, but it’s a lot harder for me to laugh at everything now. It’s way harder having seen it up close. So that’s what this video is.”
Masterson similarly states in both videos: “We make comedy, we’re actors. We were going there to like, make a funny.” Both men also express disbelief about the attack on the Capitol. “Dude, what happened today?” Masterson asks. “I need time to like, process what happened. There was a terror attack.”
In the video on his channel, Scattini recounts how he ended up crying in a Wendy’s bathroom on the car ride home from Washington and how both he and Masterson “were really shaken.”
More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes in the riot, ranging from misdemeanor offenses like trespassing to felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy, according to an Associated Press database.
About 750 people have been sentenced, with almost two-thirds receiving some time behind bars.