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Rep. Clay Higgins is a kind of Republicans you would possibly overlook about for lengthy stretches, however the second you might be reminded he exists, you realize one thing significantly groan-worthy is coming. That’s simply what occurred on Wednesday, when FBI Director Christopher Wray testified earlier than the Home Homeland Safety Committee. Higgins began grilling him about “ghost buses” supposedly “stuffed with FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters” on Jan. 6, 2021.
Higgins opened this line of questioning with a quote from an FBI informant who claimed that he had marched to the Capitol with “fellow Proud Boys members” whereas “speaking along with his FBI handler whereas folks have been getting into the U.S. Capitol. Are you able to verify that the FBI had that type of engagement with your individual brokers embedded inside to the gang on Jan. 6?”
“In case you are asking whether or not the violence on the Capitol on Jan. 6 was a part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and/or brokers, the reply is emphatically not,” Wray responded.
That’s when Higgins actually obtained going, barking, “You’re saying no? You’re saying no?”
”Are you conversant in, with … you realize what a ghost car is? You’re the director of the FBI, you actually ought to. You recognize what a ghost bus is?”
”A ghost bus?” Wray responded, a contact incredulously.
”Ghost bus!”
”I’m unsure I’ve used that time period earlier than,” Wray stated, maintaining a straight face.
”Okay,” Higgins stated in a tone oozing with disbelief. “It’s fairly frequent in, in legislation enforcement. It’s a car that’s, that’s used for secret functions. It’s painted over.” He then introduced up a photograph of the backs of a number of buses, and indicated those within the center.
“These two buses within the center right here, they have been the primary to reach in Union Station on Jan. sixth, 0-500, I’ve all this proof, I’m displaying you the tip of this iceberg.” Higgins was then interrupted for a degree of order, however he later resumed to say, “These buses are nefarious in nature and have been stuffed with FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters deployed unto our Capitol on Jan. 6. Your day is coming, Mr. Wray.”
Higgins was performing, and it was a pure conspiracy-theory efficiency that might have been taken straight from a very hacky suspense thriller. One the place the FBI is so incompetent that it hundreds its informants onto devoted buses which are simple to select as a result of “[i]t’s painted over.”
Wray headed the felony division of the Justice Division below President George W. Bush and has been the director of the FBI since 2017. Higgins spent a few years as a neighborhood patrol officer, then resigned earlier than he may very well be disciplined for extreme use of drive. However now that he’s in Congress, he’s play-acting the position of the hard-bitten, streetwise cop who has a factor or two to inform these fairly boys on the high about how the world actually works. He desires to make it appear to be he’s on the cusp of uncovering a conspiracy greater than anybody may presumably have realized.
Higgins seems to be inventing a brand new conspiracy concept. Whereas Republicans invested in denying that Trump supporters instigated the assault on the U.S. Capitol have lengthy claimed that FBI informants spurred violence, the “ghost buses” factor appears new. Rep. Bennie Thompson, the previous chair of the Jan. 6 choose committee, advised HuffPost, “In all our work, we by no means even got here throughout that time period,” or the particular allegation of a bus stuffed with informants.
However the best way right-wing conspiracy theories work today, it’s doubtless that we’ll be listening to much more about them—as Higgins supposed. That is how poisonous the Republican Get together is today: Members of Congress are actively selling new conspiracy theories about occasions that have already got loads of conspiracy theories hooked up to them. How can we have now a functioning democracy when Republicans use violence to attempt to overturn an election after which use official Home hearings to unfold conspiracy theories that their celebration’s base hadn’t even been speaking about?
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