(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) CNN admitted Monday that Americans no longer believe the media’s lies about the U.S. Capitol protests on Jan. 6, 2021.
CNN data reporter Harry Enten broke down the numbers of voters who believe President-elect Donald Trump’s association with Jan. 6 should make him ineligible for the presidency, revealing a notable decline from Jan. 2021 to 2023 and 2024.
A “clear majority”— 56%—of voters believed Trump should be barred from the presidency in January 2021, while only 47% held the same belief in 2023 and 2024, according to CNN’s review.
“Of course, Donald Trump won the presidency,” Enten conceded, in what marked a drastic departure from the propagandist network’s postelection coverage in 2016.
“And part of the reason why was because of views on Trump completely shifted, including Trump’s role in Jan. 6, 2021,” he noted.
The nine-point drop in disapproval of the Jan. 6 uprising, which came as Congress sought to certify the highly contentious and disputed 2020 election in favor of Democrat Joe Biden, made “all the difference in the world,” Enten said.
“Of course, Donald Trump won the vast, vast, vast, vast majority of the other 53%,” he added, referencing the Republican’s historic 2024 victory, in which Trump won the popular vote, Electoral College, all seven battleground states and both chambers of Congress.
Despite Enten’s assertion that views on Jan. 6 had shifted, conservative media outlets have consistently sought to disabuse news consumers of the blatant disinformation promoted by CNN and others.
In the immediate aftermath, however, many of those seeking to report truthfully and accurately on it found themselves censored, canceled or even prosecuted as victims of the Biden Justice Department’s relentless lawfare campaign.
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk reflected Monday on how “toxic” mere association with Jan. 6 was.
Kirk noted in a panel discussion on his show “Thoughtcrime” that, four years ago, no one within the establishment wanted to touch anything linked to Trump or Jan. 6.
Even though he, himself, was watching the events unfold all the way across the country in Phoenix, Kirk was later subpoenaed by House Democrats’ dubious Jan. 6 committee—and struggled to find legal representation.
“There are entire law firms that will go out of their way to represent terrorist bombers, to represent the worst people in society,” he said. “But we just remember back to where we were four years ago, it looked like this were the death sentence of the modern conservative, nationalist, populist movement.”
Kirk added that, following Trump’s “renaissance” victory, “it looks like it’s the exact opposite.”
Nonetheless, many on the Democrats’ side have refused to acknowledge the reality of Jan. 6—and continue to push bald-faced lies to persuade the public that it was an atrocity on par with the Holocaust.
Mollie Hemingway, editor-in-chief of The Federalist, took aim at Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., for falsely claiming police officers were “killed” on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Was shocked to see Sen. Klobuchar falsely claim today ‘police officers’ were ‘killed’ on J6. Just a brazen lie. It’s literal fake news,” Hemingway wrote on X.
She hinted that Klobuchar, who sits on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee and previously ran for president, might have been duped by another fake-news network, MSNBC.
“One year ago Rachel Maddow falsely claimed J6 protesters had ‘bludgeoned to death’ a police officer,” Hemingway noted. “Complete lie. And never corrected.”
Was shocked to see Sen. Klobuchar falsely claim today "police officers" were "killed" on J6. Just a brazen lie. It's literal fake news. One year ago Rachel Maddow falsely claimed J6 protesters had "bludgeoned to death" a police officer. Complete lie. And never corrected. https://t.co/3N6isKwlKI
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) January 6, 2025
Dozens of mostly peaceful Jan. 6 protesters were thrown in federal prison for years by the Biden administration, and Trump has pledged to issue pardons to the political prisoners as soon as his first day back in office.
“Those people have suffered long and hard,” Trump told Meet the Press of the Jan. 6 “hostages” in his first sit-down TV interview since winning a second term.
But he noted that not all of the people who entered into the Capitol may not have been there simply to exercise their free-speech rights, since some may have been colluding with leftist subversives to deliberately undermine the MAGA movement and legitimate concerns over systemic vote fraud.
“There may be some exceptions to it. I have to look,” Trump said. “But uh you know, if somebody was radical crazy, there might be some people from Antifa there.”
Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by the Daily Caller, Headline USA, The Federalist, and the American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
