This story originally appeared Sept. 17, 2022 in Must Read Alaska and is being republished Jan. 6, 2025:
Congressman Don Young, who died March 18, told Alaskans in Wasilla in February that the Jan. 6, 2021 rally at the nation’s Capitol was not an insurrection.
In never-before-seen video taken by Must Read Alaska at the Menard Memorial Sports Center, Young can be seen discussing the events of Jan. 6, when thousands of Americans flew to Washington, D.C. to hear President Donald Trump speak and to protest the certification of the Electoral College by the U.S. Senate.
Young told Alaskans at a Republican district convention that on Jan. 6, 2021, when a few people at the Capitol became unruly, he took out the Colt 357 Python firearm that he had in his office and kept it in sight.
“I went to the office with my wife, and I locked the door, and I told my staff, ‘Don’t you let anybody in this office period, unless I say it’s all right.’ I got out my Python and put it on top of my desk. And that was my answer to the so-called … it was not a riot. It was a large group of people with about 100 troublemakers.
“Do you go to an insurrection if you don’t have a firearm? It’s not an insurrection,” Young said. “They were there, but there was no violence in the heart of the major part of the group.” He said there have been insurrections throughout history “but it wasn’t that ground that day.”
The Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol in the U.S. House has characterized the events as an insurrection. The mainstream media has repeatedly called the events of Jan. 6, 2021 an insurrection, something that irritated Congressman Young, who said, on the video, that police in the U.S. Capitol knew about the events in advance.
