As January 6 hearing kicked off, OAN counterprogrammed with a fawning interview of insurrectionist who posed at Speaker Pelosi's desk
OAN host: “Our desk, by the way. It's not yours, Nancy. We own that house. We own that desk. ... The problem is, y'all forget that.”
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From the July 21, 2022, edition of OAN's Real America with Dan Ball
DAN BALL (HOST): Today, I was watching all the left-wing channels building up for the clown show tonight, episode eight, and they had strung together just a bunch of little clips that I'm sure this committee leaked to them or just gave them. “Here you go. We even preedited it for you." And it was every single talking head just going, “He was watching TV. He was watching TV. He was watching TV in the dining room at the White House," saying that President Trump was even gleeful, I think I heard Kinzinger say, that kiss-ass. "Oh, the president was in the White House. I heard from reports watching it unfold, gleefully excited, cheering on the protesters."
This is what they're painting right now on the other network. And while this clown committee continues on with their sham tonight, there are still people rotting, as I said, in the D.C. jails, some of them since last January like 7 or 8 when they got arrested. Now, some, thankfully, have been released. Richard Barnett is one of those. You probably remember him. He got a little famous for taking that picture with his feet propped up on auntie pill-popping drunk Nancy Pelosi's desk. There's the pic. Our desk, by the way. It's not yours, Nancy. We own that house. We own that desk. We own that, looks like a little laptop or something or tablet, that Richards got his foot on. That's ours. We paid for it. The problem is, y'all forget that.
Now, Richard has had his court date pushed back until December, so he doesn't even know his fate yet. We're told that he has pled not guilty to a slew of charges they're throwing at him, most of them bogus. Like, let's be real. If you walk through, they're going to say you're trespassing. OK. But they're trumping up all kinds of other charges against these people. Joining us now, his attorney, Joseph McBride, and January 6 defendant Richard Barnett. I want to welcome both gentlemen, Joseph, back to the program, and Richard, the first time. Gentlemen, how are we doing today?
RICHARD BARNETT (INSURRECTIONIST): Doing good. Doing good. I think I'm going to start referring to myself as Richard "Big O, pure-blood" Barnett.
BALL: Joseph, you've been busy. Busy? Richard's not your only client. His case is probably a little different because I am sure that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats running this sham of a committee are taking that picture and just trying to paint poor Richard as the worst and biggest insurrectionist next to the shaman guy that was just joking around, sitting on the chair there in the House.
JOE MCBRIDE (ATTORNEY): That is true, Dan. Nancy Pelosi has been on the record calling him a thug and Joe Biden calling him an insurrectionist and a domestic terrorist. It's, you know, it's part and parcel to their to their parlor games and tricks. But time is running short. The clock is running on this administration and certainly this Congress.
BALL: Yeah, I know this is sticky because Richard has not gone to trial yet. And now the judge pushed it even further back. So I don't know who can answer what, because I know attorneys always want to speak for their clients. They don't stick their foot in their mouth. And we know that this committee will take anything Richard says and try to twist it, right. Show a little 2-second sound bite from this interview. So, I guess, to Joseph. What are the charges Richard's facing right now?
MCBRIDE: Most serious of all the charges is the 1512 charge, which has to do with disrupting the official governmental proceeding, obstructing it. It's a charge that should not apply in these cases. It was created for, in response to the Enron cases, it really has nothing to do with it.
BALL: Is that a felony, by the way? Sorry to interrupt, Joseph, is that a felony?
MCBRIDE: Sure, that's a felony.
BALL: Yeah. If you interrupt a federal proceeding, that's a felony. Oh, yeah. So, David, hold on. So, David Hogg -- because I'm going to discuss this later and I just popped into my brain. So an anti-gun activist just interrupted an official proceeding yesterday and then he had Capitol Police act as his security when conservatives were getting [in] his face with their cell phones in the hallway. But nobody arrested him. But he interrupted an official proceeding. Just want to get that out there. OK. So they're trying to get him on interrupting that. That's the big felony. And again, I'm sure Joseph will tell you to be quiet, Richard. But did you do anything that day as far as beating up on cops, breaking stuff, or did you, like a couple thousand, simply walk through your house and then, yeah, you got a little comfy in her chair, but there was no violence on your part.
BARNETT: That is correct.
BALL: OK.
BARNETT: As a matter of fact, [unintelligible] up to the Capitol, which most people don't know. There was an area rented by Stop the Steal as permitted next to the Capitol. So this whole idea that Trump did go to the Capitol in a vicious way is ridiculous. But along the way, we were all in good spirits. We were shaking police officers' hands. You know, here, back the blue rally back in 2020, helped small towns buy body cams when they couldn't afford it. You know, people think that everybody there was bad or everybody there was good. People forget, you got good and bad in everything. I mean, you've got good police officers. You got good, bad, you know, bad police officers. You've got bad politicians. You got -- oops, well, maybe not politicians, but you know where I'm coming from.
...
BALL: Let me ask you this, Richard, because you saw a lot and you were, I don't know if you were at the front of the line when people started going in, in the middle of the back, whatever, doesn't matter. Did you see bad actors, nefarious characters? Because we on this network have shown and aired the video of the antifa and BLM scum changing their outfits under the tree out front of the Capitol from their black to their MAGA garb, or vice versa. Either way, they were changing. We've seen the guy that sold and made $70,000 on his video, that young Black BLM antifa kid, Sullivan. We've seen him in the halls taking pics in Congress that day, taking his MAGA hat off. So we know there was nefarious characters and bad actors and possibly even FBI informants in the crowd. Did you see any of that, besides MAGA people, mixed in with that crowd?
BARNETT: Yes. As a matter of fact, I saw John Sullivan outside and I recognized him as antifa but I didn't know why he was there. Of course, you hear a lot of things and there were so many people there. Everybody has their own [unintelligble] But the worst, the bad characters I saw, earlier I said you've got good police and bad police. I was jovially walking to the Capitol, had a lady in a wheelchair next to me being pushed by a nurse. Me and my friends decided we were going to walk around the Capitol and go home. So we walked up on what I now refer to as the grassy knoll, you know, and everybody else went to the center there in front of the tunnel and started singing and chanting. And I saw people laughing and carrying on. And the next thing I know, a big line of police showed up behind them and the people were doing nothing. There were families there and everything, and the place just started barraging them with tear gas and flash grenades. I mean, just out of the blue for no reason.
BALL: Right.
BARNETT: I didn't know it then, but I put it together now. That's what drove them into the tunnel where Roseanne Boyland lost her life when a police officer beat her to death while she was already unconscious. So I actually witnessed the start of this whole thing when the police, the Capitol Police, attacked innocent protesters. Yes, sir, I saw it.
BALL: Wow. Richard, I want to stay in touch with you, Joseph, we chat with him a lot, and have you back on the program. Do us a favor, Joseph, keep us informed of his case as it moves forward toward December, and please, let's come back on the program and give us updates. OK, gentlemen.