Several crew members filming a comedy section on the U.S. Capitol for “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” had been charged with illegal entry earlier this week, main distinguished Republicans together with Fox News host Tucker Carlson to falsely cry “insurrection.”
“Last night, producers from Stephen Colbert’s show on CBS committed insurrection at the United States Capitol,” Carlson falsely claimed on his present Friday evening.
Carlson was referring to the arrest of seven manufacturing crew members for Colbert’s CBS present Thursday evening, which was filming a section within the Capitol with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a crass puppet voiced by comic Robert Smigel. Capitol police mentioned Friday that the arrests occurred after the constructing had been closed to guests and the crew had already been advised to go away the constructing.
Colbert’s staff had completed up prearranged interviews with lawmakers and had been filming “final comedy elements” within the constructing’s hallways when the arrests happened, CBS information mentioned in a press release. All seven crew members had been slapped with illegal entry fees.
The arrests rapidly grew to become fodder for Republicans seeking to distract from this week’s hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol assault by falsely equating the arrests of the crew members to the violence of former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
“It’s exactly like what happened on Jan 6., so we’ll take a close look at what the punishments are,” Carlson advised his viewers Friday evening.
He’s mistaken. In the case of Jan. 6, 5 folks died and greater than 140 officers had been injured after lots of of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an try and cease the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory. In the case of Colbert’s crew, they had been arrested filming a comedy section that includes a puppet greatest recognized for hurting folks’s emotions.
And there have been harm emotions. Congresswoman and QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene took a photograph of comic Smigel together with his puppet and posted it to Twitter to whine about “targeted harassment.”
“Now all of you engaged in insurrection & enabled targeted harassment against me and my Republican colleagues,” Greene tweeted. “I’m telling the full story next week.”
Disinformation service provider and Pizzagate peddler Mike Cernovich echoed an identical speaking level on Twitter.
“If they aren’t charged criminally the same as J6 defendants, then more evidence of selective prosecution arises,” Cernovich mentioned in a tweet. “Judges can only rig stuff so much before the judiciary loses all legitimacy. Throw the book at these trespassers.”
And Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) took the chance to check Colbert’s manufacturing crew being within the Capitol to a tour Loudermilk gave to Jan. 6 individuals someday earlier than the violence ensued.
“So while they’re accusing me of giving illegal tours of the Capitol, they are giving illegal tours of the Capitol,” Loudermilk said, accusing Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) of permitting the manufacturing crew entry.
The distinction, in fact, is that comic Smigel was armed with a microphone, and one of many males Loudermilk gave a tour to was later seen marching on the Capitol, filming an confederate who was armed with a spear whereas making focused threats in opposition to lawmakers.
