Jan. 6 rioter Stephen Ayres isn’t nearly as deserving of our sympathy as the U.S. Capitol police officers to whom he apologized this week.
Still, I did feel for him as he testified about being conned into marching off to stop a steal that Donald Trump knew wasn’t happening.
And if we keep prosecuting insurrectionist minnows like Ayres — 874 rioters had been arrested at last count — but then let the flounder-in-chief swim free of the net, the former president’s coup attempt will have succeeded, not in denying Joe Biden’s rightful election, but by doing grave damage to our democracy.
