CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan confronted a passel of Trump supporters over their denial and wingnuttery as the anniversary of the January 6 Capitol insurrection approaches.
O’Sullivan has carved out a niche for himself by wading into the waters of right-wing delusion like some sort of journalistic hillbilly handfishin’ practitioner, and he plucked a few doozies out of their holes in his most recent report.
On Monday night’s edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, host Anderson Cooper introduced O’Sullivan by noting that the Jan. 6 committee “now has firsthand knowledge from multiple sources about what the President was doing during the riot and two Committee members, Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney say the information they have makes the case that he did nothing to stop the rioters who again were his followers. Despite all of this, there are supporters of the former President who claim not to believe this accepted history.”
What followed was a parade of Trump supporters blurting out jaw-dropping statements of denial and nutty conspiracy theories to O’Sullivan. Some choice cuts:
- “January 6 attack was not the Republicans nor Trump. It was the Democrats were behind it all. They’re the ones that caused it all.”
- “[T]here is no way that a Republican would act that way.”
- “And there is no way that Trump had anything to do with what happened on January 6.”
- “We are very peaceful people. So it was a total setup to me. It was the FBI had set it up. I don’t believe that they were Trump supporters that did that.”
- “Trump won the election. They, they’ve proven it over and over again.”
- “I really don’t think Trump had much to do other people that were supporters for him, somewhere involved, but I think they were enticed by the FBI. And by, you know, undercover agents.”
There was one Trump supporter, Roz Lesser, who expressed some grasp of reality to O’Sullivan.
“What do you think of the Trump supporters that stormed the Capitol?” O’Sullivan asked Lesser.
“Oh, you talk about misfound feelings. I’m seeing the folks from my side of the state that were there, and they’re not the part of the campaign that we would like to have,” Lesser replied.
“Do you think some Trump supporters that say it’s Antifa, it’s Black Lives Matter, that they know that that’s bullshit, but they just don’t want to admit it’s easier to blame someone else?” O’Sullivan asked.
“Everyone is afraid to, you know, take the blame, [it’s] that simple,” Lesser said.
Watch above via CNN.