Violence erupted in US Capitol Hill on Wednesday during the Congress session as a group of armed Donald Trump supporters stormed the building.
Soon after, photos and videos of the violence started going viral. Amid all the photos, one stood out: Of a shirtless man donning a deer-antler hat; his face painted in red, white and blue. The horned, shirtless man amid the US Capitol demonstration naturally caught everyone’s attention.
— Zach Braff (@zachbraff) January 6, 2021
A front runner already for the Republicans 2024. pic.twitter.com/4bDYfAAdKO
— 📚Talk To The Hatter🎩 (@Talk_To_The_Hat) January 7, 2021
This is what happens when you defund The Arts pic.twitter.com/sCoFRj7ic9
— CrumlinShoppinCentre (@OfficCrumlinSC) January 6, 2021
The absolute state of these insurrectionists, though. Imagine if your democracy was toppled by these absolute fridgets. pic.twitter.com/VzF0f0nCNc
— Cllr. Peter Kavanagh (@TheKavOfficial) January 6, 2021
I’m currently writing about hypermasculinity and Viking Medievalisms in white supremacy… the horns, valknut, and the ‘tree of life’ (Yggdrasil) on this guy underline this terrifyingly perfectly. pic.twitter.com/K1EBfmRrgJ
— Amy J F (@queertyyr) January 6, 2021
I think the bigger question is why is jamoriquai storming Capitol Hill? pic.twitter.com/IDFTUjXQFA
— Sammyb (@Samanth27589323) January 6, 2021
The horned, shirtless man has now been identified by two US Media Outlets AzCentral and WRIC as Jake Angeli. According to the reports, Angeli is a QAnon supporter who has been a fixture at Arizona right-wing political rallies over the past year.
Angeli was seen in photographs from Washington, D.C., amid protesters who turned violent and stormed the building.
At one point, Angeli was seen on the dais of the U.S. Senate. He posed for a photo flexing his right arm; his left was holding a spear from which hung a U.S. flag.
This is happening pic.twitter.com/MNDC2Nh1Cg
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 6, 2021
Since at least 2019, Angeli has held forth outside the Arizona Capitol shouting about various conspiracy theories, most related to the wide-ranging beliefs espoused by QAnon.
Angeli, in a 2020 interview with The Arizona Republic, said that he wears the fur bonnet, paints his face and walks around shirtless with ragged pants as a way to attract attention, reports AZ Central.
In February 2020, Angeli worked the crowd outside a rally in Phoenix for Trump.
He held up a tattered sign that read, “Q sent me,” and asked the crowd if they knew of the conspiracy.
A May 2020 interview also saw him in the same costume.
Hey #JakeAngeli you’re gonna go to prison https://t.co/zOBcjR24Nx
— Sebastian Roché (@sebroche) January 6, 2021
People are now calling for his arrest since he has been identified.
Jake Angeli is the guy behind the desk. pic.twitter.com/ah2m5dcGOQ
— Ben Owen (@hrkbenowen) January 6, 2021
Jake Angeli is an actor. That’s it. That’s the tweet. pic.twitter.com/89aNivYEu4
— 👨🏽🎤RICHIΞRICH $ETH 10K $LINK 1K $XVG 1.00 (@CryptoRich0x69) January 6, 2021
His name is Jake Angeli
He lives in Arizona
Arrest him pic.twitter.com/H0KiRty42f
— Shawn in Az🌵 (@ShawnInArizona) January 6, 2021
here’s Jake Angeli in the viking hat and bad tats https://t.co/1uLyA0SHuy
— Alex de Campi (@alexdecampi) January 6, 2021
Unverified videos appear to show a woman who was part of the protests on the floor inside the Capitol and bleeding after gunfire erupted momentarily. Police cleared the last of the supporters of Trump from the US Capitol on Wednesday after they stormed the building and disrupted the certification by Congress of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
US media outlets quoted the sergeants-at-arms of the House of Representatives and the Senate as saying the Capitol was now secure, about four hours after it first came under attack. A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been declared by Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who asked for the assistance of the National Guard to help reestablish order in the nation’s capital.
Police in riot gear had set up a perimeter around the Capitol building, which came under attack by Trump supporters after the president addressed a rally nearby in which he repeated his baseless claims of election fraud.
The nation’s elected representatives scrambled to crouch under desks and donned gas masks, while police futilely tried to barricade the building, one of the most jarring scenes ever to unfold in a seat of American political power. A woman was shot and killed inside the Capitol.
At the moment following the violence, some Cabinet members are holding preliminary discussions about invoking the 25th Amendment to force President Trump’s removal from office.
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