Republican AG Candidate Calls Capitol Rioters ‘Heroes,’ Brags Her Staff Members ‘Were Participants in Jan. 6’

A Republican candidate for attorney general in Minnesota bragged that people on her staff “were participants in January 6th” and called the Capitol rioters “heroes.”

Lynne Torgerson is running to secure the GOP nomination on a very pro-insurrection platform. In a clip from a forum on Jan. 25 that was flagged by Heartland Signal on Thursday, she claimed President Joe Biden had been installed via a coup. Of course, what actually happened was that after a free and fair election, supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in an attempt to stop the election’s certification.

“Ok, January 6th,” Torgerson began, “I should note that I have at least two people on my staff who were participants in January 6th. And  quite honestly, it seemed at the time that the election of Joe Biden was actually somewhat of a coup, and that the person who won was President Trump. And so I think in a lot of ways, the people at the Capitol on January 6 were, um, heroes and trying to preserve who was actually elected.”

Doug Wardlow, another candidate at the event, said that the rioters are being “improperly prosecuted” and that as attorney general, he will “push back against the federal government.”

Wardlow was the 2018 Republican nominee and is the general counsel for MyPillow, whose CEO Mike Lindell is one of the most ardent proponents of the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.

During the waning days of the Trump era, Lindell met with the president and discussed his proposal for overturning the election results. One photo showed Lindell carrying a piece of paper with the words “martial law if necessary.”