XPost: alt.society.resistance, or.politics, sac.politics
XPost: talk.politics.guns
Former President Donald Trump on Friday compared the people jailed on
charges that they stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to the more
than 120,000 people of Japanese origin incarcerated on U.S. soil during
World War II.
ôWhy are they still being held? NobodyÆs ever been treated like this,ö he
said in an interview with conservative commentator Dan Bongino. ôMaybe the Japanese during Second World War, frankly. They were held, too.ö
The GOP presidential nominee has consistently tried to play down the
storming of the Capitol by his supporters who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss, portraying it earlier this week as a ôday of love.ö About
140 officers were injured that day, making it likely the largest assault
of American law enforcement in a single day. Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt
was shot and killed by police.
Trump has previously said the rioters have been ôhorribly treatedö and has referred to those still jailed as ôhostagesö and ôvictims,ö repeatedly
calling for their release and suggesting he would pardon them if re-
elected.
TrumpÆs Democratic opponent Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday
accused him of gaslighting the public regarding Jan. 6.
The federal government incarcerated an estimated 120,000 people with
Japanese ancestry, including U.S. citizens, following a February 1942
order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A 1983 congressional commission concluded the detentions were a result of ôracial prejudice,
war hysteria and failure of political leadership,ö and the U.S. government formally apologized and paid $20,000 in reparations to each victim five
years later.
ôJapanese Americans are not and should not be compared to insurrectionists
who committed major crimes and in which people were hurt and killed,ö said Sharon Yamato, the daughter of former Japanese Americans who were
incarcerated. ôAnd I think that that is just so horrible to try to even
make that comparison or allege that thereÆs any similarities between the
two.ö
Trump claimed the Jan. 6 defendants ôwon in the Supreme Court,ö referring
to a ruling from this past June that limited a federal obstruction law
that had been used to charge hundreds of Capitol riot defendants as well
as the former president himself.
The Supreme Court opinion that Trump claims should have freed the rioters
was authored by Chief Justice John Roberts. In a 6-3 ruling, the high
court held that the charge of obstructing an official proceeding must
include proof that defendants tried to tamper with or destroy documents.
But the overwhelming majority of the approximately 1,000 people who have
been convicted of or pleaded guilty to Capitol riot-related federal crimes
were never charged with obstruction and will not be affected by the
outcome.
Trump also was charged under that statute by special counsel Jack SmithÆs
team, which has also said the ruling should not have any bearing on its prosecution of Trump on charges that he plotted to overturn the 2020
election.
Trump has maintained that he only encouraged supporters to protest ôpeacefully.ö In a speech on the White House Ellipse that morning, Trump
told the crowds to march ôpeacefully and patrioticallyö to the Capitol.
But he also used far more incendiary language when speaking off the cuff.
He said ôWe fight like hell. And if you donÆt fight like hell, youÆre not
going to have a country anymore.ö
https://www.wtnh.com/news/politics/ap-trump-compares-jailed-capitol- rioters-to-japanese-internment-during-world-war-ii/
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