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Salon
Salon
Politics
Alex Henderson

MI GOPer wants holiday honoring rioters

Protesters fueled by President Donald Trump's continued claims of election fraud march in an attempt to overturn the results before Congress finalizes them in a joint session of the 117th Congress on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

In Michigan, State Rep. Steve Carra — a far-right MAGA Republican, "Stop the Steal" extremist and anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist — has proposed a resolution calling for a January 6 "Remembrance Day." However, it isn't the victims of January 6, 2021 that Carra wants to honor, but rather, the insurrectionists who tried to steal the 2020 election from now-President Joe Biden.

The victims of January 6, 2021 range from the police officers who died because of the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building to then-Vice President Mike Pence — who some of the insurrectionists wanted to lynch — to the millions of Americans who voted for Biden only to see then-President Donald Trump and his supporters try to have their votes undemocratically thrown out. But as Carra sees it, Trump supporters were the victims on that day.

Carra's resolution reads, "We condemn the tyrannical actions of the government over the past two years." And the resolution calls for "all elected officials wittingly complicit in the misinformation scheme" to "resign and apologize for the disgrace they have been to our country."

Carra, endorsed by Trump, is running for reelection to the Michigan House of Representatives. Previously, he planned to run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat presently held by Rep. Fred Upton, a moderate conservative who announced, on April 5, that he isn't seeking reelection in the 2022 midterms. But Carra dropped out of that U.S. House primary.

Because Upton isn't an extremist, Carra has attacked him as a RINO: Republican In Name Only. What he neglects to mention, of course, is that Upton was a Republican long before Trump.

Carra's January 6 resolution also slams the FBI for "improperly" raiding the home of Ryan Kelley, a far-right "Stop the Steal" Republican and Big Lie promoter who was arrested on June 9 for his alleged activities in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021. Kelley, who is seeking the nomination in Michigan's GOP gubernatorial primary, is facing four charges, including disorderly conduct — and he has been bragging about his arrest on the campaign trial. If Kelley wins the nomination, he will go up against Democratic incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the general election.

In his resolution, Carra blames the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol Building on a "few rogue and malicious agitators." But as the hearings being presented by the January 6 select committee have demonstrated, it wasn't just a "few" people who attacked the Capitol that day; it was a large mob who bought into the election lies promoted by Trump and his supporters, including Carra.

If Carra's resolution is passed in the Michigan State Legislature and makes it Whitmer's desk, she is certain to veto it.

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