‘QAnon Shaman’ Blames Media for Making Him the Face of Jan. 6, While His Mom Says Trump Invited Him to the Capitol
Jacob Chansley, who is spending 41 months in prison for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 of last year, is blaming the media for making him the face of the riot. His mother, meanwhile, is placing some the blame on the shoulders of former President Donald Trump.
The man and his impossible-to-miss costume, which consisted of a headdress and face paint, entered the Capitol building and eventually the Senate chamber en route to becoming the embodiment of Jan. 6.
Chansley, who was instantly labeled the “QAnon Shaman,” spoke to Inside Edition on his mother’s cell phone from inside an Oklahoma prison for an interview that aired on Wednesday.
Inside Edition’s Lisa Guerrero asked Chansley, “How are you doing?”
Chansley resounded, “Considering the fact that I’m not in solitary confinement anymore, I’m better than I was when I was in solitary.”
Guerrero then asked him if he had any regrets about participating in the riot.
“In retrospect, one thing I can say that I regret is not working to ensure that there was far more peace on that day,” Chansley claimed. “Had I known what was going to happen, I would have stepped in before any barricades were breached.”
Chansley was then asked how he feels about being the personification of a riot.
“You’re a grown man. You chose to go to the Capitol that day,” Guerrero noted, asking, “Many people look at you as the face of Jan. 6 and are appalled. What is your response to those people?”
Chansley responded, “As far as being ‘the face,’ that’s something that the media made me. I didn’t make myself anything.”
Chansley also claimed he attempted to “stop the violence.”
Chansley’s mother, Martha Chansley, told Inside Edition she blames Trump for her son’s lengthy prison sentence.
“He was invited to go to the Capitol, so he went,” she said.
When asked who invited her son to the Capitol, Martha Chansley told Guerrero, “Well, President Trump invited everybody to go there.”
Watch above, via WCBS.
