Jan. 6 was an ‘attempt to steal a fairly won election’

Editor:

I feel compelled to respond to John Matuszczak”s letter in last week’s paper. In my opinion, what seems to be an effort on his part to justify the outrageous assault on our Constitution by the current Administration, he makes a number of fantastical claims.

For example, in one case he compares what is going on today to the “Disinformation Governance Board” led by Nina Jankowicz during the Biden Administration. The DGB was an effort to counter some of the outrageous disinformation coming out of entities such as QAnon. It lasted for one month before it was paused and had its charter canceled 3 months later. Hardly the left wing conspiracy to censor free speech that Mr. Matuszczak makes it out to be. His reference to “shenanigans, abnormalities and outrageous fraud” in the previous Administration perplexes me. Perhaps he could have been more specific. I have no idea what he is referring to. 

In another example he points to the demonstration in Seattle in the 2000 Summer of Love Demonstration against police brutality. In no way would I consider justifying the actions of some of the demonstrators, however not only is using ancient history in an attempt at justifying what is going on today, but his claim that 900 police officers were injured is outrageous. From what I can gather, the number is between 50 and 59 officers injured. Which is 59 too many but certainly not 900.

Finally, he again attempts to justify the Jan. 6 Capital riot as nothing more serious than a peaceful demonstration against election fraud. What he fails to point out is that in the intervening five years, in spite of numerous efforts, there has not been one shred of evidence of election fraud. He seems to have forgotten that five people died and $2.7 million of damage was done to the Capital. He further forgets to point out that 174 police officers were injured and that the mob had the stated intention of killing the Speaker of The House and came within feet of the vice president whom they also said they intended to murder. This was by no means a peaceful demonstration but an attempt (for the first time in our history) to steal a fairly won election.

In this case, the facts just don’t support the position.

Charles Welch

Gunnison