Republican Senator Pushes Wild Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theory Which Promptly Gets Smacked Down By Reporters

AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) got torn apart by reporters who fact-checked his attempts to fuel January 6th conspiracy theories with new footage released from the U.S. Capitol riot.

Conservatives celebrated on Friday when House Speaker Mike Johnson announced the release of 40,000 hours of footage from the day Donald Trump’s supporters besieged Congress. Lee, who was involved in the scheme to help Trump overturn his 2020 election defeat, reacted to the footage throughout the weekend by picking fights with Liz Cheney and demanding an investigation of the January 6th Committee.

As Lee claimed in a series of tweets that the footage somehow disproves the Left’s political narratives about the Capitol riot, he picked up on a tweet from Derrick Evans, the former West Virginia lawmaker who pled guilty to a felony civil disorder charge after live-streaming himself storming the Capitol. The post had a photo of a Trump supporter inside the Capitol holding an object in his hand, giving Evans basis to say “Is this person flashing a badge? If so, this would prove there were undercover federal agents disguised as MAGA.”

Ever since the riot, right-wingers have attempted to minimize the violent lawbreaking of the event while claiming that federal agents secretly incited the mob to create a false flag justification to legally persecute Trump’s supporters. As such, Lee seized on Evan’s tweet and said “I can’t wait to ask FBI Director Christopher Wray about this at our next oversight hearing. I predict that, as always, his answers will be 97% information-free.”

But as Politico’s Kyle Cheney and NBC News’ Ryan J. Reilly promptly pointed out, the man in the photo is Kevin Lyons, a Trump supporter who was sentenced to prison on one felony charge and five misdemeanors after stealing from Nancy Pelosi’s office. Furthermore, the object in Lyons’ hand was not a badge, but a vape, which he was seen carrying earlier in the day.

For what it’s worth, Evans has admitted that he may have been mistaken with his tweet that Lee picked up.