How a ‘False Flag’ Cry Has Divided Republicans in Oregon

In the view of the Oregon Republican Party, what transpired on January 6 was not an insurrection and the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol were not supporters of Donald Trump. Rather, the uprising that the world witnessed that day was a “false flag.” Its aim, according to the party, was to discredit Trump and “advance the Democrat goal of seizing total power, in a frightening parallel to the February 1933 burning of the German Reichstag.”

This conspiracy theory has been . But these are the words of that the Oregon GOP’s executive committee passed on the evening of January 18 by a vote of 12–2. Convening over Zoom for its monthly meeting, the party had taken up the two-page measure principally to condemn the “betrayal” of the 10 GOP House members