Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) claimed that Jan. 6 was not an insurrection but a riot that "the media had spun up" to appear like an attempt to overthrow the government.
DeSantis appeared on comedian Russell Brand's show Stay Free on Friday, and Brand asked the governor whether he thought those involved in breaching the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, were protesters or insurrectionists. Floridians made up 89 of the 900 people arrested for crimes surrounding Jan. 6.
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“It was not an insurrection. These are people that were there to attend a rally, and then they were there to protest," DeSantis said. "Now, it devolved, and it devolved into a riot, but the idea that this was a plan to somehow overthrow the government of the United States is not true, and it’s something that the media had spun up just to try to basically, you know, get as much mileage out of it and use it for ... partisan and ... for political aims."
The Department of Justice successfully convicted six leaders of the Oath Keepers of seditious conspiracy. DeSantis seemed to imply that the crimes of a few could not be made to represent all who were there in Washington that day.
"But all you’re showing me is that there are a lot of protesters there, and it ended up evolving, you know, in ways that was unfortunate, of course, but to say that they were seditionists is just wrong,” DeSantis said.
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Brand's interview with DeSantis comes days after he interviewed Tucker Carlson for the first time since he was fired from Fox News. The comedian hosts his show partly on YouTube but in full on its rival video platform Rumble. Part of Carlson's interview was behind a paywall. When it came to the interview with DeSantis, who is gunning for the 2024 GOP nomination, the entire interview was free to watch.
DeSantis is facing off against former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, political commentator Larry Elder, businessman Perry Johnson, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in the race to win the GOP presidential nomination.