Undated (WBAP/KLIF) – The viral image of one of the people who stormed the Capitol Building in Washington in a bid to overturn the 2020 election has been portrayed in some social media posts as a Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporter or part of the left-wing anti-fascist movement Antifa. He was not.
32-year old Jake Angeli has been spotted at numerous wearing his hat with fur and horns and face paint at pro-Trump rallies.
Angeli has spoken in support of Trump’s policies and is a supporter of the conspiracy theory QAnon.
This Twitter video is from May 2020.
Jake Angeli, 32, sporting horns and body paint, yells his thanks to President @realDonaldTrump and Q.
The latter is presumably a reference to QAnon, a controversial far-right group. @azcentral pic.twitter.com/RJ990L0xA2
— BrieAnna J. Frank 🌵 (@brieannafrank) May 5, 2020
According to Reuters, Angeli’s Facebook posts say that he attended the “MAGA Million March” in December 2020 and “Q Con” in October 2020.
On Tuesday, January 6, at the US Capitol Angeli is photographed inside the building. During an interview with NBC, he expressed his delight at what went on at the Capitol that triggered a lockdown of the buiding:
“The fact that we had a bunch of our traitors in office hunker down, put on their gas masks and retreat into their underground bunker, I consider that a win,” Angeli said in reference to lawmakers who feared for their safety.
Angeli is from Arizona.
One of the most startling images, quickly shared across social media, shows a man dressed with a painted face, fur hat and horns, holding an American flag. pic.twitter.com/Z2WNIl3jg4
— sewar banimusa (@sewar_banimusa) January 7, 2021
(Copyright 2020 WBAP/KLIF 24/7 News.)
