‘There’s The Truth And There Are Lies!’ CNN Anchor Destroys Republicans Over Trump-Inspired Riot In Blistering Commentary

CNN anchor Phil Mattingly absolutely body-slammed Republicans over the Trump-inspired January 6 riot in a blistering commentary ahead of President Joe Biden’s speech marking the anniversary of the attack.

President Joe Biden will mark the Jan. 6 anniversary on Friday — a day ahead of schedule due to the weather — with a speech in Valley Forge, PA focused on threats to democracy like the insurrection.

But on Friday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Mattingly marked the occasion with a bombardment of J6 revisionist Republicans with the most damaging projectiles he could find — their own words:

PHIL MATTINGLY: Tomorrow will mark three years since thousands of Americans, lied to by the President of the United States and their elected representatives, perpetrated an assault on the building that has come to symbolize democracy across the globe and the men and women who work on its grounds.

That’s not an opinion! It’s not an interpretation! It’s not one side of a debate.

It is an unequivocal, demonstrable fact. Here are some others. Nearly 700 January 6th defendants who pleaded guilty to federal crimes ranging from trespassing to violent assaults on police. Another 130 have been convicted at trial. 140 officers guarding the Capitol that day reported physical injury. The actual number with physical injuries or grappling with trauma is far higher, according to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

U.S. ATTORNEY MATTHEW GRAVES: The siege of the Capitol is likely the largest single-day mass assault of law enforcement officers in our nation’s history.

PHIL MATTINGLY: These are facts unequivocal, demonstrable. Which is why this Associated Press headline was so jarring this week.

“One attack, two interpretations: Biden and Trump both make the January 6th riot a political rallying cry.”

There aren’t, in fact, two interpretations. There is what happened and then there are lies!

But the point of the actual AP story itself should be jarring, because it helps explain the Washington Post/University of Maryland polling this week that laid bare the reality of this moment for this nation about that day.

More than 7 in 10 Republicans say too much is being made of the attack, and that it’s called time to move on. Fewer than 2 in 10 say the January 6th protesters were mostly violent. 34% of Republicans say it’s probably or definitely true the FBI instigated the attack.

For one, there’s zero violence, or zero evidence of that last one. Despite its rampant prevalence in conservative conspiracy circles, circles that include Republican members of Congress. Here’s the FBI director last fall.

CHRISTOPHER WRAY: If you are asking whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6th was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and or agents, the answer is emphatically not!

PHIL MATTINGLY: But here’s the thing more broadly, viewing that day through the lens of a campaign or politics at all is exactly why the country’s in this place. Republicans have made a political calculation, one tied directly to their 2024 frontrunners grip on the party. So let’s try this. Put aside campaigns, put indictments aside to help put the former president aside for a moment. Here are Republicans, in their own words, on or shortly after that day.

REP. MIKE GALLAGHER: I am sheltered in place in my office because we have protesters who have stormed the Capitol. This is Banana Republic crap that we’re watching happen right now.

PHIL MATTINGLY: That was Congressman Mike Gallagher, Wisconsin Republican. He’s not a rabid pro-Trump MAGA lawmaker. He has said he won’t support Trump in 2024 on account of his age, but that, what he described is the reality of that day.

KEVIN MCCARTHY: These men and women in uniform. They got overrun. One officer got killed. I wouldn’t doubt they got broken arms. You don’t understand what was transpiring at that moment in that time. They scaled walls. They brought ropes. They were scaling the scaffolding. They overtook the place.

PHIL MATTINGLY: That was Kevin McCarthy a week after the attack. He’s currently unemployed, but he was once the House speaker and did more than any other Republican to halt the party’s break from Trump after January 6th. McCarthy endorsed Trump last month, but what he described was the reality of that day.

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY: The criminals who did it ought to be prosecuted as they are being, and ought to be given the full measure of the law. You’re not going to get anything but condemnation from me for what happened with those criminals at the Capitol on January 6th.

PHIL MATTINGLY: That was Senator Josh Hawley, a month after the attack, as the Senate weighed impeachment of the former president. Hawley endorsed Trump last month. But what he described was the reality of that day.

“Mark. I was just told there’s an active shooter on the first floor of the Capitol. Please tell the president to calm people. This isn’t the way to solve anything.”

That was a text from a lawmaker to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, as the attack was taking place. That lawmaker was Marjorie Taylor Greene. She endorsed Trump the day he launched his 2024 campaign, but what she described was the reality of that day.

And here’s Senator Ted Cruz, the day before the first anniversary of the attack.

SEN. TED CRUZ: We are approaching a solemn anniversary this week. Uh, and it is an anniversary of a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol, where we saw the men and women of law enforcement demonstrate incredible courage.

PHIL MATTINGLY: That was the reality of that day. It was unequivocal. It was demonstrable. It is now political. Think that’s an exaggeration? Remember those Cruz comments we literally just played for you?

This is Ted Cruz the very next night.

TUCKER CARLSON: You called this a terror attack when by no definition was it a terror attack? That’s a lie. You told that lie on purpose, and I’m wondering why you did.

SEN. TED CRUZ: Well, Tucker, thank you for having me on. When you first aired your episode last night. I sent you a text shortly thereafter and said, listen, I’d like to go on, because the way I phrased things yesterday, it was sloppy and it was, frankly, dumb.

PHIL MATTINGLY: The key point. They know better. They all know better.

Watch above via CNN This Morning.