Several crew members filming a comedy segment on the U.S. Capitol for “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” were charged with illegal entry earlier this week, leading distinguished Republicans including Fox News host Tucker Carlson to falsely cry “rebellion.”
“Last night, producers from Stephen Colbert’s show on CBS committed rebellion at america Capitol,” Carlson falsely claimed on his show Friday night.
Carlson was referring to the arrest of seven production crew members for Colbert’s CBS show Thursday night, which was filming a segment within the Capitol with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a crass puppet voiced by comedian Robert Smigel. Capitol police said Friday that the arrests happened after the constructing had been closed to visitors and the crew had already been told to go away the constructing.
Colbert’s team had finished up prearranged interviews with lawmakers and were filming “final comedy elements” within the constructing’s hallways when the arrests took place, CBS news said in an announcement. All seven crew members were slapped with illegal entry charges.
The arrests quickly became fodder for Republicans seeking to distract from this week’s hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack by falsely equating the arrests of the crew members to the violence of former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
“It’s exactly like what happened on Jan 6., so we’ll take a detailed have a look at what the punishments are,” Carlson told his viewers Friday night.
He’s fallacious. Within the case of Jan. 6, five people died and greater than 140 officers were injured after a whole bunch of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an try and stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory. Within the case of Colbert’s crew, they were arrested filming a comedy segment featuring a puppet best known for hurting people’s feelings.
And there have been hurt feelings. Congresswoman and QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene took a photograph of comedian Smigel along with his puppet and posted it to Twitter to whine about “targeted harassment.”
“Now all of you engaged in rebellion & enabled targeted harassment against me and my Republican colleagues,” Greene tweeted. “I’m telling the complete story next week.”
Disinformation merchant and Pizzagate peddler Mike Cernovich echoed an identical talking point on Twitter.
“In the event that they aren’t charged criminally similar to J6 defendants, then more evidence of selective prosecution arises,” Cernovich said in a tweet. “Judges can only rig stuff a lot before the judiciary loses all legitimacy. Throw the book at these trespassers.”
And Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) took the chance to check Colbert’s production crew being within the Capitol to a tour Loudermilk gave to Jan. 6 participants at some point before the violence ensued.
“So while they’re accusing me of giving illegal tours of the Capitol, they’re giving illegal tours of the Capitol,” Loudermilk said, accusing Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) of allowing the production crew access.
The difference, after all, is that comedian Smigel was armed with a microphone, and one in every of the boys Loudermilk gave a tour to was later seen marching on the Capitol, filming an accomplice who was armed with a spear while making targeted threats against lawmakers.
