Elvis is still alive. Bigfoot is out there. And antifa protesters pretending to be Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
The selling of hoaxes is as American as P.T. Barnum. But in the case of the Capitol assault, a hoax is not harmless fun; it’s un-American and dangerous. Yet that didn’t stop Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin from falsely blaming the deadly violence that broke out on “agent provocateurs” and “fake Trump protesters” during this week’s hearing on security failures that allowed a Trump-backed mob to attack on Jan. 6.
Lies like that defy the truth of what happened before the country’s eyes. There’s no way to erase the streaming Trump flags, or the video of rioters shouting, “We were invited here! We were invited by the president of the United States!” The chants of “Hang Mike Pence!” won’t fade away, Neither will the chilling footage of Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman being chased by the mob. No one can delete the testimony from rioters who told the FBI they began marching toward the Capitol because “President Trump said to do so.” It’s all documented.
Why would Johnson deny that truth? Because Trump voters are blind to it. In a new Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll, 58 percent of voters who backed Trump and were asked to describe what happened during the assault called it “mostly an antifa-inspired attack that only involved a few Trump supporters.”
In an interview, David Paleologos, who heads the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said he was surprised by the high number who looked at the rioters and saw antifa, especially since not all poll respondents were Republicans. Some were Trump-voting independents and Democrats, who might be expected to be more open to reality. Yet what unfolded before their eyes didn’t matter. Neither did the fact that no one known to be affiliated with antifa — a left-wing political protest movement — has been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack. Trump’s second impeachment trial, which charged him with incitement of an insurrection and presented graphic evidence of the attack, didn’t change their minds either. In fact, the poll, which was taken after that, “tells us the Trump voters doubled down,” Paleologos said.
What could dilute such blind loyalty? It would help if Trump disappeared forever, or at least limited his brooding presence to his golf courses. Unfortunately, that’s not happening. Instead, the former president is ramping up for a return to the political stage. This weekend, he’s scheduled to appear before the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, where he will proclaim himself the party’s presumptive 2024 nominee, “with a vise grip” on the base, Axios reported.
In the long run, Trump’s strength with the base is the party’s Achille’s heel; that’s what Paleologos believes. Take away his hard-core base, and the numbers trend away from Trump, he said. Republicans are leaving the party, and independents are leaving Trump. If Trump is nominated in 2024, Paleologos predicts, “You have a nominee who has very little appeal among independents and a diminishing number of core supporters.”
I hope he’s right. In the meantime, it will take more brave politicians like Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois to rebut the lies. Calling out Johnson, Kinzinger tweeted: “It’s disgraceful for a sitting Senator to spread disinformation so blatantly. It’s a disservice to the people he serves to continue lying to them. It’s dangerous and it must stop.” Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Wisconsin, also said Johnson was a “small step away from blaming Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and Hodag,” a fictional Wisconsin monster, according to The Washington Post.
More truth-telling is needed. But it won’t kill the lie.
Ray Wallace, the man who made up a story about finding large, mysterious footprints in a logging camp in northern California, died nearly 20 years ago. At the time of his death, his children came forward to tell the world that “Bigfoot” was a hoax, created by their prankster father. Yet there are still Bigfoot sightings — just like there are still Elvis sightings 40 years after his passing.
The lie about the Capitol assault will live on too. But true patriots must do their best to contain it.
Joan Vennochi is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at joan.vennochi@globe.com. Follow her @joan_vennochi.