NOT VERY CONVINCING

Mark Meadows: Don’t Blame Trump for ‘Handful of Fanatics’ on Jan. 6

More than 700 people have so far been charged in connection with the violence at the Capitol.

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows claims in his new book that a “handful of fanatics” is to blame for the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, accusing Donald Trump’s critics of selectively focusing on what he described as a few bad apples. “No one would [focus] on the actions of… those supporters of President Trump who came [to Washington on January 6] without hate in their hearts or any bad intentions,” he writes in the upcoming book The Chief’s Chief, per The Guardian. “Instead, they would laser in on the actions of a handful of fanatics across town.” More than 700 people have so far been charged in connection with the attempted insurrection, which left five people dead. While Trump called on his supporters to “fight like hell” and “take back our country” just before the mob stormed the Capitol building, Meadows insisted that the rioters had “absolutely no urging from President Trump.” Meadows recently became the highest-ranking former White House official to cooperate with congressional investigators in a probe of the Jan. 6 attack. The move came after he faced the threat of a contempt of Congress charge for defying a subpoena.