January 6 rioters are ‘political dissidents’ declares spouse of Trump cabinet nominee

Conservative Fox News personality Rachel Campos-Duffy on Friday referred to January 6 rioters as “political dissidents,” a term traditionally reserved for individuals persecuted for opposing authoritarian or oppressive governmental authority or policies. Renowned figures who have been described as political dissidents include Martin Luther King Jr., Alexei Navalny, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Nelson Mandela.

Campos-Duffy, a longtime Trump defender, is married to former U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI), a former lobbyist and Fox Business co-host, who is now President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to head the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Duffys met when they were both contestants on a reality TV show.

In January 2024, Campos-Duffy claimed, "Democrats getting nervous. Their January 6 narrative is crumbling as security footage that was once blocked continues to be released to public."

In April, Campos-Duffy posted an angry rant over a claim that a bed and breakfast operator who calls herself the "J6 praying grandma" might be sentenced to a year in jail. Months later, in August, the Associated Press reported that her "misdemeanor case has become a cause célèbre among conservatives critical of the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 prosecutions. Prosecutors accused her of 'profiting off the celebrity of her conviction' with a slew of media appearances questioning the integrity of the court system and the jurors who convicted her."

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"What the hell is happening in America???!!!" Campos-Duffy wrote. "Illegals who broke into our country aren’t in prison. Joe & Hunter Biden sold the country out to China. They aren’t in prison. BLM protesters who torched our cities didn’t go to prison. But a grandma who prayed in our Capitol on January 6 gets one year in prison!!!"

The woman was not sentenced to a year in jail but was sentenced to "six months of home confinement in her Capitol riot case after the judge railed against 'offensive' comments she has made about the criminal justice system," the AP reported.

Last month, Campos-Duffy described Trump's nominee to head the FBI, Kash Patel, as a "great pick," and wrote: "I hope he starts with exposing the January 6 lies."

In 2023, Campos-Duffy called the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack a "sham" committee.

On Friday, in a segment on "Fox & Friends," Campos-Duffy declared, "They've been directing agents to go after political dissidents from J6—from January 6—instead of going after terrorists."

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to pardon at least some of the January 6 rioters, Reuters reported last month.

In that segment (video below) she made suspect claims regarding U.S. funding of the Taliban and "Islamist rebels in Syria."

Campos-Duffy also declared the FBI, Dept. of Defense, and Dept. of Homeland Security have "given us zero confidence."

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"They've said nothing with the border open and terrorists flowing over our borders," she claimed, before attacking criticism of former Fox News co-host Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Defense.

"We know that within the military, they were flagging Pete Hegseth as a white supremacist, because of a tattoo."

Hegseth has multiple tattoos, some of which reportedly have been linked to Christian nationalism and white supremacy.

Watch the video below or at this link.

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