Kabuki Theater: the "top 12 strange, stand-out moments" of the January 6th Committee's interview with Ray Epps

On his Substack, Raheem Kassam lists "the top 12 strange, stand-out moments" of the "bizarro-world" that is the January 6th Committee's "pernicious" interview with Ray Epps.

The entire thing reads like an exculpatory public relations effort, replete with assistance from committee members more concerned with helping Epps clear his name than getting to the bottom of his actions that day. But Epps’s interview is even stranger than these “CYA” attempts. 

 … In fact, you’ll never see Kinzinger be so nice to a supposed Trump supporter as he is throughout this interview.

Raheem Kassam's list echoes my posts titled The Central Absurd Inconsistency of the Ray Epps Conundrum Described in Two Sentences and The January 6 Protest Summarized in One Single Sentence. One of his main points is strange, stand-out moment # 9.

Epps is asked: “So it looks like, around 9am, your nephew texts you… and then, at 2:12pm… you text back: ‘I was in the front with a few others. I also orchestrated it.’”

Boom. Surely? Case closed! Ray Epps admits, in writing, in his own words, in his own texts, to his own family, to “orchestrating” actions on January 6th, after dinner with a stranger, hours missing the night before, and of course the plethora of video evidence showing him personally inciting riots and criminal actions. Charge him? Surely?

But, no. For reasons we are never told, Ray Epps is both a free man and getting fellated by Adam Kinzinger.

Q: “What did you mean by “orchestrate”? What did you orchestrate?”

Epps: “I just meant that I got - you have to understand our relationship, uncle-nephew. We hunt together. We fun with each other. We do that kind of stuff. What I meant by “orchestrate,” I helped get people there.”

 … What about the hundreds of detainees held without charge or release and who have been treated like dogs for doing far less than Ray Epps did that day? Is it fair enough for them? Is it fair enough to the people whose lives have been irretrievably ruined by that day? Is it fair enough to history and the public record that this kabuki theatre is allowed to sail by, unridiculed, unfisked, and unabated?

 … Perhaps I’ve lost my mind. But none of Epps’s testimony rings normal to me. None of it carries the same tone as other interviews given to the January 6th committee. There’s no probing. Epps is hurried along between timelines and subjects. He offers bizarro explanations and is never pulled up on them. And more than anything: more questions are raised as a result of this interview, than those that were answered. Were any answered?

Related: • The January 6 Protest Summarized in One Single Sentence
• The Central Absurd Inconsistency of the Ray Epps Conundrum Described in Two Sentences