Greg Gutfeld Brazenly Lies on Air to Claim Jan. 6 Rioters ‘Didn’t Beat the Crap Out of Police’

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

~ George Orwell, 1984

On Thursday’s episode of The Five, Greg Gutfeld attempted to get the Fox News audience to reject the evidence of their own eyes and ears, claiming the rioters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 “didn’t beat the crap out of police” — a statement that is not only a blatant lie, but contradicts what his own colleagues reported in the aftermath and even his very own comments.

His attempt at historical fan fiction happened during a debate with his co-host Jessica Tarlov regarding President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in D.C. and the arrest of a 37-year-old man who threw a sub sandwich at a federal agent.

Tarlov called Trump’s actions in D.C. and previously in Los Angeles a “massive consolidation of power,” criticizing him for “call[ing] an emergency for everything.”

“It is an emergency,” Gutfeld interrupted her.

“It is not. He said at first, ‘I have 30 days,’ and then he said, ‘Well, I can make it a national emergency and then it would be forever. I could do it. I don’t know if I will,'” Tarlov replied, launching into other criticisms about some of Trump’s recent hires and actions.

“Also, if you back the blue,” Tarlov said a bit later in their discussion, “then he pardoned all of these January 6ers who beat the crap out of police.”

“They didn’t beat the crap out of police,” Gutfeld retorted.

“Oh really?! No?” said a clearly shocked Tarlov.

“Who died on January 6th?” Gutfeld demanded.

“‘Ashli Babbitt, say her name,'” said Tarlov, mockingly giving Gutfeld the reply he was fishing for as he cut in again with, “That’s all you need to know.”

“No, it is not all you need to know,” Tarlov fired back. “And you know that hundreds of officers were attacked –”

“You don’t have a coup without guns,” Gutfeld said.

“Do not say that the hoagie guy is more of an offender than the people who attacked police on January 6th,” Tarlov said.

“I think the hoagie guy is the poster boy for your party, and when he goes to jail he’s not going to have a choice of toppings,” said Gutfeld before ending the discussion to go to commercial break.

***

“They didn’t beat the crap out of police,” says Greg Gutfeld.

They didn’t beat the crap out of police?

This is such a flagrantly, maliciously dishonest statement it would be ludicrous to call it merely “inaccurate” or a “misrepresentation.”

It is a lie. 

It is objectively, absolutely, obviously not true, and everyone sitting around that table in the Fox News studio knew it was a lie, including the man who said it.

Gutfeld is far from the only conservative media figure to shamelessly try to rewrite the history that the entire world watched live on their television screens and streaming online, not to mention the countless photos and videos from that day collected by federal prosecutors and the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 — many of which were taken by the rioters themselves.

In March 2023, before he was unceremoniously defenestrated from the network, Gutfeld’s then-colleague Tucker Carlson played a similarly dishonest game. On an episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson aired video clips of carefully curated moments when the rioters were walking through the Capitol hallways or otherwise not being violent to absurdly insist that the “overwhelming majority” of the rioters were “peaceful” and “ordinary and meek,” merely “sightseers.”

To make such an outlandishly false claim, Carlson pretended as if the many other photos and video clips didn’t exist that showed the rioters knocking down barricades, breaking windows, and smashing through doors; violently assaulting law enforcement officers by attacking them with bear spray, flagpoles, bats, and other weapons; overwhelming the outnumbered cops and stealing their tasers, batons, and shields to use against them; shoving them down stairs, kicking and punching them, smashing them in doorways, gouging their eyes, and so on.

This happened less than five years ago. We all watched video of bloodied cops, gasping and eyes watering from caustic sprays, yelling in pain as they were being bludgeoned or crushed.

Trump’s pardons may have released convicted rioters from prison and ended any prosecutions still pending, but they did not and cannot erase the factual evidence of the photos, videos, and testimony from the police officers about the violent assaults and injuries they suffered — not to mention the rioters’ own social media posts, communications, and in-court testimony admitting what they had done.

At least four officers are known to have taken their own lives in the aftermath of January 6. An untold number have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and other mental trauma.

Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died after he suffered a series of strokes within hours of being pepper sprayed by rioters, a death the Washington D.C. medical examiner found was from natural causes but added that “all that transpired [during the riot] played a role in his condition.”

In total, about 140 officers were wounded during the riot, fifteen of whom required hospitalization. Documented injuries included concussions and other traumatic brain injuries, heart attacks, cracked ribs, shattered spinal discs, lung and respiratory system injuries, and injured eyes. Several officers required subsequent surgeries and long-term physical therapy. Some were medically unable to return to their jobs.

“I’ve talked to officers who have done two tours in Iraq, who said this was scarier to them than their time in combat,” acting D.C. police chief Robert J. Contee III told The Washington Post on January 11, 2021.

Yes, those rioters did in fact “beat the crap out of police;” 172 of them admitted it by pleading guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers. Hundreds more were convicted of such offenses.

In the immediate aftermath of January 6, Gutfeld and his Fox News colleagues were able to condemn the rioters with clear language, specifically calling out the assaults on law enforcement officers.

Sean Hannity denounced those who were “vandalizing our nation’s Capitol, attacking the brave men and women that keep us safe in law enforcement” and called for them to be “arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Mark Levin ranted on his radio show about the “criminal, lawless, idiotic, moronic” actions of the rioters, declaring “they broke the law” and “should be” charged with crimes.

“The attack on law enforcement,” said Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy, “was jaw-dropping.”

“You can’t smash windows, spray police with chemical agents, assault police officers, loot, and vandalize,” said Jesse Watters on the Jan. 7, 2021 episode of The Five. “I condemn it fully.”

Gutfeld concurred with his co-host’s comments — “I condemn this equally,” he replied — and added that what happened during the riot was “disgusting behavior.”

The January 2021 Greg Gutfeld did not hesitate to condemn the rioters who violently attacked police. The August 2025 version pretends it never happened.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.