by Paul Bedard
September 8, 2021
-Washington Examiner
Organizers of the Capitol rally for hundreds of Jan. 6 protesters charged and held in jails around the nation have been threatened with multiple death threats, all turned over to U.S. Capitol Police to investigate.
Matt Braynard, executive director of Look Ahead America, the organizer, said left-leaning activists have threatened him and the group over its continued plan to demand that the protesters are treated as least as well as antifa, Black Lives Matter, and Trump inauguration protesters, most of whom saw charges of violence dropped.
“Despite all of this entirely peaceful operation by us, I’m being bombarded with death threats and threats of violence. So, all the violence happening here is exclusively coming from the Left, all the threats of real violence that we’re seeing here,” Braynard told Secrets in an interview.
His group is at the center of protests to critical race theory teachings in schools, the FBI’s hunting down of Jan. 6 protesters and state voter reform efforts.
The Sept. 18 “Justice For J6” rally at the base of the U.S. Capitol is expected to attract hundreds to watch videos and hear speakers, including some lawmakers. Braynard has stressed those coming to act peacefully and stick to the message of aiding the Jan. 6 protesters.
While a handful of protesters have admitted to committing acts of violence, many others tracked down by police walked into the U.S. Capitol through doors held open by police and posed for selfies. One, Ashli Babbitt, was shot dead as she tried to enter the House Speaker’s Lobby despite orders to stay out.
Braynard and many conservatives have charged that the protesters are being handled far differently than those who were charged in last summer’s protests and the violence following Trump’s 2017 inauguration.
Critics have worked overtime to convince the media that his rally will be violent, which he strongly denies. Capitol Police have already reacted by saying they are on alert. And the former No. 2 at the FBI, Andrew McCabe, has warned police to take the event “very seriously.”
Braynard said, “this is simply a civil rights issue.” But, he added, critics, especially foes of the former president, want his rally and those planned for Sept. 25 in state capitals to be shut down. “The idea of our people organizing and attending rallies and raising the profile of the injustices terrifies them,” he added.
And, he added, he won’t back down in the face of the threats. “We ain’t afraid and we will not be stopped,” he tweeted.
The focus of the rally is on those others dragged into court, totaling nearly 600, as well as the handful who did commit violence on Jan. 6. He said that many of the “patriots” caught in the FBI dragnet have lost their jobs because they have been labeled as insurrectionists.
And he questioned the speed and depth of the investigations.
“The small handful who so far have been credibly charged with violence, they are due a fair hearing, a fair trial. I don’t think that that’s happening for them. They’re still having the deck stacked against them. And in many cases, those who have been accused of violence have had the government slow walk evidence and say that they may not even be able to present the evidence for another year. So I don’t know how credible these claims of violence against many of these individuals are, to begin with,” said Braynard.
