GOP Rep. Says January 6 Was 'Made Up': 'That Was A Staged Thing'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: MEDIAite

May 21st, 2026, 7:25 pm


Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) said on Thursday that the January 6 insurrection was “made up,” claiming that the event was “staged” by those who opposed President Donald Trump. Norman was asked by press about the Department of Justice’s new $1.776 billion fund set up as part of a settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the 2019 leak of his tax returns.

The Department claimed the fund was meant “for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress,” leading many to question whether Jan. 6 rioters could receive money through the fund. When pressed on this possibility, Norman claimed that the insurrection had not taken place in the way it remembered, seen on video, and spoken about by those who saw or actively took part in the riot.

NORMAN: Look, January 6th was an issue that was made up in the first place.

REPORTER: Made up, sir?

NORMAN: That was a staged thing from day one.

REPORTER: The riot was staged?

NORMAN: When you had police officers letting people in the building, when you had people that’s not being prosecuted– Ray, I forget his name. There’s no excuse for that.

REPORTER: Your colleagues, though, your Republican colleagues ran for their life and barricaded themselves in their chamber. You think they were acting?

NORMAN: No, there was a riot there but it was a self made riot by members who hate Trump. It was made up, in my opinion.

More than 140 police officers were injured on January 6, including sustaining traumatic brain injuries and other lasting ailments. The attack caused approximately $3 million in damage to the Capitol.

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/gop-rep-says-january-6-was-made-up-that-was-a-staged-thing/

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GOP CREDOS - "Repeat a lie enough times and it will become the truth."

It's clueless mindless selfish zombies like thus guy, who have destroyed this country.

[purr-rat beauty]

1. It's not even Plausible Deniability

It's straight up Bullshit

SC can do better

[MarcoZandrini]

11. Surely....

…you jest!

[chicoescuela]

23. Apparently SC can't do better- hopeless

[republianmushroom]

43. SC best ?

One has to wonder if he knows the difference between a turd and a wooden stick.

[sop]

2. So,Trump is paying off Antifa crisis actors?

[choie]

53. Exactly.

You're smarter than the reporters who no doubt lack the analytical reasoning to ask that question.

[everyonematters]

3. gullible idiot with no critical thinking skills

[SonOfNebanaube]

7. No doubt about that... n/t

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

60. Serving in his fourth term as a U.S. House Representative.

This gullible idiot was put into Congress by hundreds of thousands of other gullible idiots.

[liberalgunwilltravel]

4. Maybe Numbnuts Norman

Should experience a staged thing up close and personal. How do such cretins get elected? Oh, right other cretins vote for them.

[OldBaldy1701E]

5. I'm sorry, who does he represent?

**Looks at stuff after his name**

Oh...

Carry on, then.

[Timeflyer]

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

Orwell, 1984--every damn day.

[Bengus81]

8. Fine....staged actors that were hired didn't suffer any harm on that day

and therefore don't qualify for any compensation. Guess Fat Hitler doesn't need the money.

[Rhiannon12866]

9. Someone show him the video of Officer Fanone!

[Evolve Dammit]

68. They could care less, and Drumpf watched with glee

[littlemissmartypants]

10. Thomas Hawley Tuberville made a speech yesterday in support of the 1.776billion dollar slush fund which included...

His claim that Democrats were the instigators of the attack on the capital on J6.

I saw it on the PBS Newshour yesterday.

[AverageOldGuy]

13. He's the next governor of Alabama

[GiqueCee]

24. Of course he is...

... even though his primary residence is reported to be in Florida. Well, whaddya expect? Honesty is a cardinal sin in the GOP.

[The Wizard]

27. Football coaches are deities in Alabama

It's time to stop Civil War reconstruction.

[GiqueCee]

18. "Tubby" the Half-Wit...

... is what happens when cousins marry for several generations in a row.

[Bengus81]

21. And...go sliding down those airline boarding steps. Gawd how I love watching that vid.......

[travelingthrulife]

31. Seriously, that's what these traitors are going with? Antifa did it.

They are ridiculous people.

[Maraya1969]

36. Well then we Democrats should apply for the money. But why would Trump set this up for people who

were against him?

[MoseShrute]

50. Good

Let him present the evidence in a court of law

[Norrrm]

12. Trump pardoned those rioters who supposedly hated him?

MAGAs trying to kill polce on Jan6

--------------
Was your flagpole damaged on Jan6 while viciously attacking police?

[travelingthrulife]

32. And again...why would antifa, or whoever, try to stop the election results

from being confirmed if they hated Trump? Stupid, stupid people.

[surfered]

14. We're not supposed to believe what we saw? This guy has no business representing anyone.

[dlk]

15. Another day, another Republican demonstrating they have no bottom

They can always find a way to go lower.

[GiqueCee]

16. What kind of...

... brain-damaged, web-footed, room-temperature IQ would even consider voting for a malicious, mendacious moron like Ralph Norman? I suspect that a common question in the 5th district might be: "If we get a divorce, are we still brother and sister?"

Jesus wept.

[KS Toronado]

17. Wonder how many MAGAts will believe him

because he has an R behind his name?

[live love laugh]

19. Circling back to Antifa did it are they?

[JohnnyRingo]

20. Somebody's fishing for an endorsement.

Don't ask for his "opinion" on gas prices or how attractive the president is.

[lastlib]

22. If it was "staged," why the hell....

...did repuglykans OPPOSE EVERY investigation into it??

[rickford66]

25. Why would Democrats interrupt the certification of Biden's win ?

Oh, "MAGA logic". Ie, the absence of logic.

[BumRushDaShow]

26. That's how you spot a MAGat

[Happy Hoosier]

28. We need to bring back tar and feathers. NT

[ColoringFool]

29. So! Pro-Biden Actors Were Paid To Disrupt The Certification Of....

Biden, in order to make the outgoing Trump look bad.

Quantum Chess.

[AllaN01Bear]

30. Who paid hi to say that

[mwb970]

33. On January 8, one of my friends said that there were NO trump supporters present.

He said the crowd was entirely Antifa agents trying to make trump look bad. Is this that same ridiculous claim? It sounds insane on the face of it.

[Ol Janx Spirit]

34. The line about the police opening doors and moving barriers is the one they...

...all go to as proof that it was somehow "staged."

They always reject out-of-hand the notion that the completely outnumbered officers were just interested in saving their own lives that day by at least seeming to cooperate with a much larger mob of angry people heading their way. What else were they supposed to do? And now because they did that then the whole thing must be staged?

I've discussed J6 with many conservatives and they always point to the actions of the overwhelmed and vastly outnumbered police officers that day as "proof" it was somehow not what it obviously was. They also like to throw in Nancy Pelosi not calling in the National Guard as the cherry on top of their ice cream sundae of self-soothing lies.

But to admit that their people showed up and beat police officers and used flag poles as battering rams to break into the building--the U.S. f'n Capitol--would be far too painful for them and their eggshell-egos. It destroys every argument they've made to themselves to justify their political positions over the years.

It's pathetic....

[BumRushDaShow]

37. There were a few sympathetic Capitol Police who appeared to go along with the insurrectionists

and there was video footage of some of them.

Six US Capitol police officers could face discipline for 6 January actions

The rest became cannon fodder for the savage thug mobs.

[tanyev]

35. So...Trump not only gave pardons to rioters who hate him, he's also trying to give them big payouts?

Am I understanding this correctly, Rep. Norman???

[Jimvanhise]

38. STAGED BY TRUMP

Trump was impeached because he told the crowd to go to the Capitol Building even though the permit for his rally prohibited anyone from approaching the Capitol Building. The hours of video make a liar out of this guy and of Trump. Republicans are desperate to rewrite the history of that day. A few weeks later when Capitol police officers testified to Congress about what happened and video of the attack was shown, many Republicans refused to look at the video and on Fox News they complained that the police were "crisis actors" and that they didn't believe that the rioters yelled racial slurs at black officers. There are documentaries about what happened that day and they should be shown on every network every week. Across the world newspaper headlines declared RIOT IN WASHINGTON DC!

[chouchou]

39. Well, Well, I thought the whole thing was staged.

I'm thinking I'm hitting the Powerball twice today!

[moreland01]

40. And THAT is why

what Jared Polis did was so very wrong.

[justhanginon]

41. Wow! High level bullcrap here from a low level congressman.

Just take a minute and think about how world class incredibly stupid you have to be in order to believe this drivel. Either he is insulting the intelligence of all South Carolinians or he thinks at least the maga cult of dubious intelligence in his district will obediently buy into his crappola.

[Ritabert]

42. Hey Norman they posted their crimes to their own social media

Explain that.

[the nelm]

70. Or were caught on and identified from nationally televised video and then...

arrested and convicted for their crimes via one or the other video source in most cases. I guess all of those the antifa "instigators" must have been wearing some sort of "cloaks of invisibility" or something...the continued gaslighting and revisionism from these fools makes my brain hurt.

[Ritabert]

74. It makes all our brains hurt.

[Marcuse]

44. Norman is out of line, but he's right. Jan6 was staged and directed from the War Room in the Willard Hotel..

link:https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-jan-6-jack-smith-willard-war-room-1234792827/|

[calimary]

72. The usual suspects, I see.

[flashman13]

45. This is pure 1984 Double Think in full cry. Up is down. In is out.

And in South Carolina the sky is yellow and the sun is blue.

[YoshidaYui]

46. if the REPUBLICAN PARTY THINK WE ARE BUYING THAT LOAD OF SHIT

THEY CAN ALL GET FUCKED. MAYBE WE SHOULD HAVE A GENERAL STRIKE IN THIS COUNTY AND NO BODY GOES TO WORK UNTIL THE WHOLE FUCKING SYSTEM CRASHES IN ON ITSELF.

[Martin Eden]

47. Hey Ralph, if all those rioters are people who hate Trump, then WHY...

....did he pardon them, and

WHY is he going to pay them millions of dollars???

[GiqueCee]

55. It looks like a classic example...

... GOP tying their own shoelaces together, and then wondering why they did a face plant in their own bullshit.
Trying to reconcile two diametrically opposed concepts – "IT'S ANTIFA WITH TDS! and LET'S PARDON THEM ALL AND THEN PAY THEM FOR BEING TRAITORS!" – must have short-circuited their brainstems.
Oh. Wait. Ya gotta have a brain before you can have a stem. Never mind.

[Martin Eden]

62. It's so friggin obvious for anyone with basic logic... Oh, wait.

That explains why Magaloons swallow such utter bullshit.

The real question is WHY that obvious contradiction wasn't posed as a question to Ralphie.

[GiqueCee]

63. Reporters gotta toe the Party Line nowadays...

... and they're all scared of what the Orange Gargoyle might tell his Flying Monkeys to do to anyone with the temerity to disagree with His Infinite Greatness who knows everything but his fat, pimply ass from a chocolate donut.

[BBbats]

48. SO........

I guess thet won't be paying out of that slush fund to the criminal ANTIFA actors who made up all the rioters in an effort to make Trump look bad.

[joanbarnes]

49. Then why give reparations to the "rioters?"

[LiberalLovinLug]

59. That's what I wanted for a follow up

Too many reporters are chicken shit

[AZ8theist]

51. What an absolute douchbag

[greatauntoftriplets]

52. Real people died.

Norman is an ass.

[Orange Buffoon]

54. It must hurt to be that stupid.

[Figarosmom]

56. Sure that's why trump wants to pay them.

What a giant sized idiot. Time to bring back dunce hats and make these people wear them.

[Fil1957]

57. Well then, if it was staged, then none of the j6ers are entitled to reparations.

[SouthBayDem]

58. Here's what Ralph Norman said back in January 2021:

"This is NOT who we are, and I condemn in the STRONGEST possible terms the actions of rioters who have breached the Capitol Building, attacked US Capitol Police, and in doing so, have jeopardized the safety and lives of everyone on Capitol Hill right now." (Jan. 6, 2021)

"The riots seen last week at the Capitol are inexcusable and all involved in the breach should be identified, arrested, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." (Jan. 12, 2021)

"On Thursday, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) introduced a bill in the House that would allow USCP Officer Brian Sicknick to lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol. Also on Thursday, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) introduced the Senate's version of this bill." (Jan. 29, 2021)

By his own standards, these press releases are made-up things.

[Karasu]

61. More than half (that is, the majority) of Republicans believe this shit and have for 5 fucking years. Never forget that.

[Katcat]

64. If it was staged

What was the purpose? Why did I see pictures of crazy people as they ransacked the building? When they wrote crude remarks on Pelosi wall?

[Grins]

65. If "staged" none of them should get any $$$$...

…from Trump’s “Weaponization” fund scam. Amiright?

[Uncle Joe]

66. Apparently Norman picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue

Thanks for the thread BumRushDaShow

[Evolve Dammit]

67. What a lying SOS. Gaslight us some more

[OAITW r.2.0]

69. Should be a litmus test question for anyone running for national office..

"Do you agree there was an attempted Insurrection on 1/6/2021?"

[Old Crank]

71. The fecal matter

Just flows easily from their mouths.

[Aussie105]

73. Rewriting history?

Takes a real smart person to turn Jan 6 into something it wasn't.

And Norman isn't that person.