Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia involved in the January 6, 2021 uprising against the U.S. government, told a congressional committee on Tuesday that the violence that day could to have been much worse. .
“We have been very lucky that no more bloodshed has taken place, because the potential has been there from the beginning,” Van Tatenhove told the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurgency during a public hearing Tuesday. in the afternoon. “And we were very lucky that the loss of lives, tragic as it may be, that we saw on January 6, that the potential was so much more.”
In all, five people, including Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, who was attacked by the pro-Trump mafia, died during or shortly after the attack, at least in part because of it. In addition, two Capitol police officers and two DC metropolitan police officers who served at the Capitol that day died by suicide in the following months. About 150 officers from different police forces were injured that day.
Van Tatenhove went on to say that he believes former President Donald Trump could incite even more extreme violence if he reappears in 2024.
Stephen Ayres, on the left, who entered the Capitol illegally on January 6, 2021, and Jason Van Tatenhove, who served as spokesman for the Oath Keepers. (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)
“I’m scared for this next election cycle, because who knows what that might entail?” said Van Tatenhove. “If a president who tries to inculcate and encourage, whip up a civil war among his followers using lies, deception and snake oil, regardless of human impact, what else will he do if he is re-elected?”
The Oath Keepers have been involved in previous clashes with the federal government. Van Tatenhove said he was first introduced to them when he went on to cover the 2014 Bundy Ranch showdown in Nevada as a freelance journalist. Oath Keepers founder and leader Stewart Rhodes is awaiting a sedition conspiracy trial for his January 6 insurrection-related actions.
“They may not like to be called a militia, but they are, they are a violent militia,” Van Tatenhove stated. “The best illustration of what the Oath Keepers are was on January 6, when we saw that military formation stacked up the stairs of our Capitol. I saw that radicalization … as the base of members and who was the that Stewart Rhodes was courting was shifting more and more to the right, to the far right, to white nationalists and even direct racists. “
The story goes on
“In my opinion, the Oath Keepers are a very dangerous organization,” he concluded.
Van Tatenhove testified Tuesday. (Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images)
Earlier testimonies earlier in the day and during select House committee hearings have established that the Oath Keepers and other far-right militias such as the Proud Boys were instrumental in organizing and executing the attack on the Capitol.
“I think we saw a vision of the vision of what the Oath Keepers are on January 6,” Van Tatenhove said in response to a question from committee chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., About the vision. of the group for America. “It doesn’t necessarily include the rule of law. It includes violence. It includes trying to make your way through lying, deception, intimidation and the perpetration of violence.”
Pro-Trump protesters gather at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Van Tatenhove said his breaking point with the group came when he discovered that several members of the Oath Keepers are Holocaust deniers.
When Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Asked why Rhodes publicly asked Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, Van Tatenhove said it was to legitimize an authoritarian effort to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
“This could have been the spark that started a new civil war,” Van Tatenhove said.
“We need to stop biting words and name things as they are,” he added. “It would be an armed revolution.”