Sinclair’s Armstrong Williams defends Capitol Police from criticism over its failure to stop pro-Trump attack on the building
Williams also falsely claims none of the insurrectionists were armed: “None of them had any kind of gun.”
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Citation
From the January 7, 2021, edition of Sinclair Broadcast Group's America This Week: United We Stand
ERIC BOLLING (HOST): Let’s bring in host of Armstrong Williams Show and the Right Side Podcast, Armstrong Williams. Armstrong you were there at the protest. Can you give us a little bit of a -- just give us a brief history of what you saw, what you know.
ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS (SINCLAIR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR): What’s fascinating about the protest is that you could tell that while many people came and they were protesting, you can tell that these people were very peaceful. I mean, I've never seen so many -- so much a diverse group: Asians, so many Black Americans, which the media won't show. And many people were making clear this is not about race, this is about the fact that we don't believe they represent our interests anymore.
And then all of a sudden, when they realized through some kind of message that went out that Vice President Pence was not going to challenge, they began the march to storm the door. They literally just like a flash, like a light went off, just something happened. Somebody said take back your house. They started storming the door.
And for those who are creating this myth that law enforcement like Capitol Hill police just let them in, are you kidding me? Are you watching this footage? They had no choice. I mean, what do you do? What do you do? Even if you have the best military in the world, even if you have the best police force, what are you going to do? Just shoot thousands and thousands of people?
And plus, none of these people were armed. Let me make sure I say this to you, none of them had any kind of gun. The only thing they had were the flags in their hands and the fire extinguishers that they were pulling out of the Capitol. But other than they were unarmed. None of them were armed.
And so, to see this chaos, and to see the way Capitol Police has handled this and the fact that they’re under scrutiny now -- they did the best that they possibly could in this situation, given the circumstances, given how it would -- they were just overwhelmed. And the fact, as sad as it is, I hate the fact that Ashley lost her life from San Diego. But given the circumstances, many many more people could have died, could have been wounded, could have been hurt. And it could have been far more disastrous had it not been for the restraint, the training, and how measured Capitol Hill police were in that moment.