Washington Post Article on ‘Financial Troubles’ of Capitol Rioters Draws Intense Reactions Online: ‘Should’ve Spent Less on Tactical Gear’

Tommy ChristopherFeb 11th, 2021, 8:18 am
 

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

A Washington Post deep dive into the “financial trouble” experienced by people charged in the Capitol insurrection drew intense reactions online, split between people who buy into the “economic anxiety” theory of Trumpism, and people who really, really don’t.

On Wednesday, WaPo published an article by Todd Frankel entitled “A majority of the people arrested for Capitol riot had a history of financial trouble,” and carrying the sub-headline “Trail of bankruptcies, tax problems and bad debts raises questions for researchers trying to understand motivations for attack.”

The article’s premise was supported by several data points:

Nearly 60 percent of the people facing charges related to the Capitol riot showed signs of prior money troubles, including bankruptcies, notices of eviction or foreclosure, bad debts, or unpaid taxes over the past two decades, according to a Washington Post analysis of public records for 125 defendants with sufficient information to detail their financial histories.

The group’s bankruptcy rate — 18 percent — was nearly twice as high as that of the American public, The Post found. A quarter of them had been sued for money owed to a creditor. And 1 in 5 of them faced losing their home at one point, according to court filings.

But the article also cited a study that found “In the Capitol attack, business owners and white-collar workers made up 40 percent of the people accused of taking part,” and that “Only 9 percent appeared to be unemployed.”

The article features a photograph of the rioters wielding a Confederate flag, but no mention of race as a factor in the attack.

The intense reactions among journalists, celebrities, media figures, and other verified Twitter users was a mixture of those who found the data “fascinating,” and those who saw the enterprise as yet another attempt to pin the rise of an overtly racist president on “economic anxiety.”

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