The Insurrectionists Would Like You to Know That They’re the Real Victims

Updated at 6:37 p.m. ET on April 23, 2021.

History is rewritten by the self-styled victims.

Even after more than four years of rationalizing and excusing every violation by the president, Donald Trump’s enablers have their work cut out for them this week, after a mob incited by Trump sacked the U.S. Capitol and disrupted constitutional order. But, undeterred, they are still energetically devoted to the task.*

I warned yesterday that Trump’s remaining allies and convince people that it didn’t happen the way it did. The whitewashing is already in full motion. Some takes the form of dangerous disinformation—false claims, for example, that antifa was behind the siege and not Trump backers, even though Trump cheered them on. Those are fringe ideas catering to a fringe audience, however, and they mostly serve to muddy the waters.