TED NUGENT Repeats False Claim That Police Invited January 6 Protesters To Enter Capitol

Ted Nugent has repeated the false narrative that that January 6, 2021 rioters were welcomed into the Capitol by police officers.

According to CNN, former U.S. president Donald Trump said in a book interview in March that "the Capitol Police were ushering people in" and "the Capitol Police were very friendly. You know, they were hugging and kissing." The claim has been echoed by Trump supporters, including Trump-endorsed Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who declared at a Trump rally in October that the people being held in jail over the Capitol attack "were invited in by Capitol Police."

Earlier today, Nugent repeated the false claim during his YouTube livestream, saying that the "FBI instigated the January 6th vandalism. That was the FBI that did that. The Trump supporters didn't do anything wrong," he claimed. "They were ushered into the Capitol by the Capitol Police. When you're ushered in by law enforcement, you're not trespassing. Do you think if I welcomed people onto my property and then I called the judge and said, 'Hey, judge, they're trespassing.' 'Well, I've got video of you welcoming them on your property. So that wouldn't be trespassing; you actually welcomed them on your property. So eat shit, Nugent. That's not trespassing.'" He added: "Hey, FBI. Hey, Capitol Police. Hey, judges. Hey, Obama-appointed judges, that's not trespassing. Law enforcement welcomed them into the Capitol."

According to the United States Department Of Justice, approximately 140 police officers were assaulted January 6, 2021 at the Capitol including about 80 U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department. More than 840 suspects have been arrested in connection with the attack.

Nugent also went on to praise a California doctor known for spreading debunked claims about COVID-19 who was sentenced on Thursday to 60 days in prison for illegally entering and remaining in the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 insurrection. Dr. Simone Gold, founder of the group America's Frontline Doctors, which treated Nugent when he contracted COVID-19 in April 2021, was also ordered to pay a $9,500 fine.

"The great courageous hero Dr. Simone Gold was charged with crimes that she's gonna have jail time," Ted said. "Dr. Simone Gold, who recommended ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine that cured people, that saved people from the weaponized Wuhan virus, that saved them from the emergency experimental shot that our own government said it's not a vaccine but let's call it a vaccine, because people are comfortable with that. You remember when the government said, 'People are comfortable with something. Let's lie to 'em.' 'Get on the train. You're going to a shower.' 'Well, they're comfortable with showers, so we'll tell 'em they're getting on the train to go to the showers. They're comfortable with that.' 'They're comfortable with the word 'vaccine' so let's tell 'em it's a vaccine even though it's an emergency experimental shot that doesn't have any research and is killing people and destroying people's lives.' But I'm gonna get off Facebook because I'm violating their community standards. So let's say I'm a Jew in Nuremberg in 1938 and I wanna have a bar mitzvah. I'd probably be violating the community standards of Hitler."

This is not the first time Nugent has spread misinformation about the Capitol Riot. Back in January, he once again repeated the baseless conspiracy theory that the riot at the U.S. Capitol was orchestrated by undercover FBI agents, Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

On January 6, 2021, supporters of former president Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, vandalized the building and assaulted police officers. Five people died, including a Capitol police officer, Brian Sicknick, and a 35-year-old Air Force veteran, Ashli Babbit, shot by police.

Many top political figures have accused Trump of personally inciting the attack by repeatedly intimating that his followers should take action in order to demand legislators address his baseless claims of voter fraud. At a rally preceding the riot, Trump gave an inflammatory speech, urging the crowd to go to the Capitol, "show strength" and "fight much harder."

In the wake of the attack, Twitter permanently suspended Trump's account, citing "the risk of further incitement of violence."

Nugent discussed the Capitol riot fallout during a January 6, 2022 YouTube livestream marking the first anniversary of the tragic event. The outspoken conservative rocker said: "I think January 6th, 2021 was a gift from God to further emphasize and prove just how rotten to the core, terminally dishonest, treasonously criminal the Democrat party is, especially this devilpunk who thinks he's the commander in chief. Are you listening and watching this monster of an America-hating, freedom-hating prick? Are you watching and listening to this guy? 'Well, that's awfully harsh, Ted.' Yes, it is extremely harsh because there are no gentle or civil terms to use to describe Joe Biden or Kamala Harris or, quite honestly, anybody in government right now.

"I articulated what today, January 6th, is and why it's a gift from God for people who possess the most important attribute and responsibility of an experimenter in self-government, which only happens in the United States Of America. And that attribute, that power, that definitive independent spirit is called critical thinking. You've got to critically think about everything now more than ever, I'm sure. But here's what critically thinking and the amassing of evidence and the identification of statistics, video footage, the statements by the enemies in the government."

Ted continued: "Here's what happened on January 6th, 2021. Trump held a rally in Washington, D.C., and the conservative families who… Unprecedented rallies throughout the campaign for President Trump. For the first time in the history of humankind, tens of thousands — I was there; I was there at the Trump rallies — ten, twenty, thirty, forty thousand people chanting for the first time in the history of politics globally, 'We love you. We love you.' Because he did so many great things for America. Securing our borders — not completely, but better than anybody. Negotiating energy independence, which, by the way — just an observation from the guitar player who didn't go to college; [I was] too busy learning important stuff — energy independence is actually better than energy dependency. Which is why we heard 'I love you' at the Donald Trump rallies. Unprecedented attendance.

"So what happened on January 6th is that the families that supported Donald Trump — 'We love you. We love you'; unprecedented numbers, unprecedented chanting — they decided to do a peaceful protest at the U.S. Capitol, but they were prodded on by this Epps prick, a government-fed instigator and agent provocateur," Nugent said, referencing the baseless claim that riots were stoked by a Trump supporter from Arizona who was falsely portrayed by some right-wing media outlets as an undercover FBI agent. "On January 6th of 2021, the conservative families who wouldn't break a window, wouldn't hurt a soul, had no guns, had no violence, had not done any rioting or arson, unlike Seattle and Portland and Black Lives Matter and Antifa… But you know, when they went to the Capitol, they were provoked and prodded by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation — allegedly. And that's where the violence erupted, that's where the vandalism occurred, that's where the criminality took place — at the hands of Democrat undercover punks wearing Trump regalia. Those weren't Trump supporters that did the violence and the vandalism — that was Black Lives Matter and Antifa and Federal Bureau of Investigation agent provocateurs. It's on film.

"I've had these debates with dirtbags, and some of the dirtbags are really close to me," Ted added. "'Well, you're a maniac because you can't see that those were Trump supporters breaking…' No, it wasn't. Those were Democrat and Federal Bureau of Investigation plants and agent provocateurs. In fact, the Trump supporters were saying, 'Don't breach the wall.' 'Don't break the windows,' 'Don't break in,' 'Don't go in' on film — the film that we've been allowed to see.

"So thank God for January 6th of 2021, because it was the Democrat gangsters that did all the violence and vandalism."

FBI director Christopher A. Wray testified repeatedly to the Senate Judiciary Committee that there was no evidence that Antifa, anarchists or provocateurs who didn't support Trump were involved in the Capitol siege.

As result of the insurrection, Congress was forced to temporarily halt its counting of the 2020 Electoral College votes, a process that ultimately certified the election of President Joe Biden.

Sicknick, who was sprayed with a chemical substance during the riot, later collapsed and died.

Babbitt, who was a vocal supporter of Trump, was shot once by an officer as she tried to climb through the broken glass window of a door to the lobby of the Capitol, which had been barricaded from the inside with furniture. Her family told news outlets after her death that Babbitt had gone to Washington on January 6 to protest Congress's certification of President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory.