Newly released video from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack shows a Texas man ranting about a “stolen” presidential election and calling for elected officials to be publicly killed.
“Cut their head off!” he yells at one point.
Its release by the Justice Department came just hours after top Republican Party officials issued a resolution on Friday stating that the people who mobbed the Capitol had engaged in “legitimate political discourse.”
The man in the video, Ryan Nichols, was arrested in the days after the attack and pleaded guilty to all of the charges against him, which include assault with a crowbar and pepper spray. His case is still pending in federal court.
Nichols filmed himself talking about Vice President Mike Pence, whom President Donald Trump told his supporters had the power to overturn the result of a presidential election during the official certification process ― an idea that is false. At his “Stop the Steal” rally held directly before the attack on the Capitol, Trump had expressed his hope that Pence would do his bidding and intervene. Pence did not.
“I’m hearing reports that Pence caved,” Nichols says in the video. “I’m telling you, if Pence caved, we’re gonna drag motherfuckers through the streets.”
“You fucking politicians are gonna get fucking drug through the streets! Because we’re not going to have our fucking shit stolen,” he says to cheers from the Trump supporters around him.
“I’m telling you right now, Ryan Nichols said it: If you voted for fucking treason, we’re gonna drag your fucking ass through the street,” he exclaims, later adding: “So let us find out, let the patriots find out you fucking treasoned this country!”
Nichols was charged alongside a friend, Alex Harkrider. Court documents show how the men posted about their involvement in the riot to Facebook.
At one point outside the Capitol, Nichols allegedly shouted a call to arms into a bullhorn: “If you have a weapon, you need to get your weapon!”
His trial is set to begin in July.