For five years, we’ve been relentlessly told that, on this day in 2021, a mob determined to overthrow the government of the United States attacked the U.S. Capitol at the direction of President Donald Trump. 

There is considerable circumstantial evidence supporting an alternative explanation of what actually happened that January 6th. President Trump didn’t incite violence; he was blocked from having National Guard units deployed to prevent any; Speaker Nancy Pelosi actually reduced Capitol security that day; the police opened some of the buildings’ doors and waved people in; provocateurs were in the crowd, some of whom may have been among the large numbers of FBI undercover operatives and informants in the crowd.

Whether what happened five years ago was Democrat “direct action” aimed at undermining President Trump and his base remains to be seen. But that indisputably was the practical effect.    

This is Frank Gaffney.