“Top GOP lawmaker in Michigan falsely claims Capitol riot was ‘staged,’ dismisses Trump supporters’ role”

WaPo:

Michigan’s Republican Senate majority leader told members of his party that the storming of the U.S. Capitol was “all staged” and not perpetrated by Trump supporters in a moment captured on video that drew calls for his resignation Tuesday from Democrats.

State Sen. Mike Shirkey’s false claims about the Capitol attack — contradicted by reporting, video and statements from the rioters themselves — circulated as Republicans remain divided over basic realities of the 2020 election and former president Donald Trump’s role in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 insurrection, underscoring the continued promotion of debunked theories by prominent members of the GOP. Newly elected Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Tuesday also suggested that Trump supporters were not to blame, testing her party’s willingness to condemn falsehoods and echoing her past claims that mass shootings were “false flag” events orchestrated by supporters of gun-control laws…


Shirkey apologized Tuesday in a statement for “insensitive comments” and said he regretted his choice of words after the Detroit Metro Times and other news outlets reported on the lawmaker’s claims during a Feb. 3 meeting with a handful of fellow Republicans.

“I said some things in a videoed conversation that are not fitting for the role I am privileged to serve,” Shirkey’s statement said. “I own that. I have many flaws. Being passionate coupled with an occasional lapse in restraint of tongue are at least two of them.”

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