Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes visits Capitol Hill after Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons

(22 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington – 22 January 2025
1. Wide of reporters speaking with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and Trump supporter Ivan Raiklin
2. Unnamed Capitol Hill staff member speaks with Rhodes, UPSOUND (English)
"You shouldn’t be here. You’re welcome, First Amendment, free speech. But it is disrespectful to be here. I have no standing here. I work here. I just want to express that, please tell your story elsewhere. Here is disrespectful."
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Stewart Rhodes, Founder of Oath Keepers:
"So you have a right to express your opinion and I have a right to carry on… I used to work here too. I have right to free speech and I’m here on official business too. I don’t really care. It doesn’t matter. I’ve got to do a BBC interview right now. So she wants to suppress free speech. She doesn’t want free speech. Certain people in her mind don’t deserve free speech, and should be wiped off the face of the planet when it comes to free speech. That’s the attitude we’re dealing with here. I stand for everyone’s free speech. I believe Blacks Lives Matter have a right to protest in Ferguson (Missouri) peacefully and I advocated for that. I helped set up for it."
4. Wide of Rhodes encircled by reporters on Capitol Hill
5. Rhodes listening to a reporter’s question UPSOUND (English):
Reporter: "Are you concerned that folks that had prior felonies that were there on January 6th are going to reflect badly on your goals that you’ve outlined here?"
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Stewart Rhodes, Founder of Oath Keepers:
"No. Look, it’s a huge crowd of people. Trump himself is a felon now, you know, so because someone’s a felon doesn’t make them — excuse me guys watch out behind you — Because Trump, because a person’s a felon doesn’t make them devoid of their right to protest, right? To petition the government for disagreements as long as being peaceable. Their First Amendment rights are not destroyed after that, I would hope."
Reporter: "I’m more just asking because of like violent backgrounds, things, things that would reflect on the way that they might conduct themselves in that situation."
Rhodes: "Here’s the thing. I’m not — I wasn’t in command of the entire crowd. It’s, it’s like 100,000 people. I was in command of my guys (Oath Keepers) and my guys screwed up. If I’d have been with them, I’d have said don’t go inside the Capitol. But I don’t believe they committed any crimes, at most trespass. But they went inside to help police officers, not just Harry Dunn. On the way out the door, Kelly Meggs stood by a police officer at the door. Kelly Meggs is 6’5, big dude. He used to be a bouncer. He helped that officer get people out. He’s like, come on guys it’s time to go. And he ushered him out it’s like he used to do on a job at a bar when it was closing time. He helped get more people out faster. They said ‘Oh, their presence inside the Capitol, lengthened the delay. That’s their — that’s how they disrupted Congress, right? Or disrupt Congress. Oh, they didn’t, they didn’t cause Congress to shut down because they’d already recessed, but their presence caused a delay in Congress being able to reconvene. It’s nonsense. He helped them get out, get them out faster."
++ENDS ON A SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
An extremist group leader who orchestrated an assault on the U.S. Capitol four years ago defended his role in the attack as he returned to the scene of the crime on Wednesday, while judges who sentenced hundreds of rioters criticized the presidential pardons that have freed scores of them from prison.

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