Rioters Followed a Long Conspiratorial Road to the Capitol

“We have been conscious of Brendan Hunt again in 2013 when he was attacking Sandy Hook households,” stated Lenny Pozner, whose son was killed on the college, and who based the HONR Community, a corporation of volunteers who search the removing of dangerous on-line content material. “I’m not stunned that he grew to become extra radical.”

“As soon as folks purchase into the idea that the federal government is an evil group attempting at each flip to hurt them, it’s straightforward for folks to basically radicalize themselves and discover others who agree,” he added.

Mr. Hunt has been assigned a public defender, who declined to touch upon Tuesday.

Sandy Hook was the primary American mass taking pictures to ignite viral, fantastical claims that it was a phony occasion staged by the Obama administration as a pretext for confiscating Individuals’ firearms. Since then just about each high-profile mass taking pictures has generated related theories.

Ms. Greene, elected to Congress in November, has for years circulated bogus theories, together with round mass shootings. On Tuesday, CNN reported that in 2018 and 2019, Ms. Greene indicated assist on her Fb web page for commenters recommending violence in opposition to Democratic leaders. In January 2019, CNN reported, Ms. Greene “appreciated a remark that stated ‘a bullet to the top could be faster’ to take away Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi.” In response, Ms. Greene posted a statement on Twitter attributing the inflammatory content material to “groups of individuals” who “handle my pages.”

Throughout her 2020 marketing campaign, Politico mined her social media accounts, discovering Islamophobic conspiracy theories and the false declare that George Soros, a rich Democratic donor, is a Nazi. After calling the 2020 presidential vote a “fraudulent, stolen election,” Ms. Greene voted on Jan. 6 with 146 different Republicans in opposition to certifying the Electoral School rely that formally declared Mr. Biden the winner. The day earlier than the Capitol riot, she referred to the Cease the Steal protests as “our 1776 second.”

In 2018 she wrote on Fb, “The folks in energy cease the reality and management and stall investigations, then present cowl for the actual enemies of our nation.”

When a follower from Jamestown, N.Y., posted false claims concerning the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive Faculty in Parkland, Fla., and stated Sandy Hook was “staged,” Ms. Greene responded, “That is all true.” The publish was surfaced final week by Media Issues for America, a liberal group that screens conservative information and media posts.