Victor Davis Hanson: What We Were Told About January 6 Doesn’t Add Up

The Daily Signal

Government, Daily News, News, Politics

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the fifth anniversary of January 6 approaches, the Left’s carefully constructed narrative is starting to crack. On today’s episode of "Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words," Hanson explains how branding January 6 an “insurrection” drove impeachment efforts, investigations, and years of specifically framed media coverage. He also examines the arrest and confession of Brian Cole Jr., the alleged January 6 pipe bomber, and why the delayed investigation and lingering questions surrounding his background cast doubt on many of the conclusions Americans were first told to accept. “To sum up everything we've been told about January 6th from the congressional committee to Kamala Harris' description of it, to comparisons with the four-month, $2 billion, 35 dead, 1,500 police officers, prior riots, arson attacks on courthouses, police precincts that was never really mentioned as a comparable crisis in the republic, all of these things, a number of FBI informants, a number of FBI agents, any effort to find the pipe bomber, the treatment of the January—it was all never transparent. We never got the honest story. So, that begs the question, why? Why didn't they just come out and say, "Here's all the information"? And the reason is, they wanted to cement a narrative in everybody's mind that a reckless demonstration that turned into a riot was a pre-planned insurrection by Donald Trump, who ordered it, and therefore, should forfeit his political career, and he should never be allowed to run for office.” (0:00) The January 6th Narrative (1:40) Inconsistencies in the Investigation (2:20) The Mysterious Pipe Bomber (3:49) Media and Political Reactions (5:05) FBI Informants and Undercover Agents (7:02) Summarizing the January 6th Events (8:47) Conclusion 👉 This episode is sponsored by the Pepperdine School of Public Policy. Learn more: ⁠https://go.pepperdine.edu/dailysignal⁠ 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ 👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel and enable notifications: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1⁠ 👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: ⁠https://victorhanson.com⁠ 👉The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: ⁠https://secured.dailysignal.com/⁠ *This content was recorded by Victor Davis Hanson prior to his Dec. 30 medical operation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I want to return to the January 6th demonstration that turned into a riot.
0:05.0	Everything that we've been told by that narrative from the left seems inaccurate.
0:09.0	We were told that it was a pre-planned armed takeover, a coup.
0:14.0	There was always something wrong about the left-wing narrative of January 6th.
0:18.0	Now we're hearing more weird things. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal.
0:33.6	I want to return to the January 6th demonstration that turned into a riot.
0:39.6	Everything that we've been told by that narrative from the left seems inaccurate. They told us
0:45.6	it was an organized insurrection. They used the word insurrection. Remember, in the second
0:50.9	impeachment indictment of Donald Trump.
0:54.8	And the trial, remember, was held after he left office,
0:58.0	and he was acquitted by the Senate, but the word was insurrection.
1:02.2	And we know that Jack Smith wanted to use that term insurrection,
1:06.1	but he felt that since no one had been in charge with insurrection 100 years,
1:10.2	he dare not do it.
1:11.7	But we were told that it was a pre-planned armed takeover, a coup.
1:17.2	But there was always something wrong about the left-wing narrative of January 6th,
1:22.3	because we knew there was a massive demonstration.
1:25.1	We knew it turned violent outside outside and we knew that people were
1:29.9	sort of invited in maybe because the guards inside the rotunda and the Capitol had no
1:35.0	other alternative. But everything after that was too clear cut. The Democrats had the
1:41.6	January 6th committee and then we know that some of the tapes and
1:44.6	testimonies were not kept safely. They're not accessible now. Some of the witnesses were kind of
	...

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