OREGON
A6 — THE OBSERVER
SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2022
Republicans running for Oregon governor defended Capitol att ack
Video of remarks came to light when
conservative group complained about
being censored by YouTube
By JULIA SHUMWAY
Oregon Capital Chronicle
BAKER CITY — A
panel of Oregon Republican
candidates for governor,
including one currently
facing federal criminal
charges for assaulting
police offi cers at the U.S.
Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, uni-
formly insisted recently
that the events of that Jan-
uary day were a righteous
protest.
Reed
Christensen,
Brandon
Merritt, Tim
McCloud,
Kerry
McQuisten,
Christensen
Amber Rich-
ardson, Bill
Sizemore
and Marc
Thielman
made their
comments at a
Merritt
private Repub-
lican forum in
Baker City in late March.
Their remarks came to
light Tuesday, April 12,
when a conservative orga-
nization founded by an aide
on Donald Trump’s 2016
campaign complained that
video of the conversation
had been removed from
YouTube for violating the
video platform’s policies on
misinformation.
The group, Look Ahead
America, has been leading
rallies throughout the
country against what it refers
to as “political persecution”
of people who participated
in a violent riot aimed at pre-
venting Congress from cer-
tifying President Joe Biden’s
election. Five people died,
nearly 140 police offi cers
and countless rioters were
injured and more than 700
people are facing federal
criminal charges.
Christensen, a former
Intel employee from Hills-
boro, is among those facing
charges. He is scheduled to
appear via video in a Wash-
ington, D.C., U.S. District
Court on May 10, just a
week before Oregon’s pri-
mary election.
According to court doc-
uments, Christensen struck
or pushed several law
enforcement offi cers and
led a group that removed
bike racks blocking people
from moving closer to the
Capitol. Offi cers sprayed
him with a chemical irri-
tant to discourage him from
pushing through the bike
racks, but he continued to
push through, according to
charging documents.
Christensen told Repub-
licans in Baker City that he
was trying to wave a fl ag
on the steps of the Cap-
itol, though photos included
in court documents don’t
show him with a fl ag. He
compared himself to early
Americans who participated
in the Boston Tea Party.
“We wanted to wave the
fl ag on the steps of the Cap-
itol,” he said. “They had
bicycle racks with guards
behind them, so I got a little
upset. You can steal an elec-
tion, break state law, federal
law, I have to stay off the
grass and stay behind your
line and not wave the fl ag?
So I got a little rowdy.”
The audience applauded
for Christensen after he told
them he was facing charges.
Other candidates praised
him. Merritt, a marketing
consultant from Bend, said
Christensen had a “great
story” to tell before he
falsely claimed that police
invited rioters into the
building.
“Jan. 6 was not an insur-
rection,” he said. “If the
left is calling that an insur-
rection, what in the world
are we calling what’s
happening in Portland?
Because it certainly ain’t
peaceful protests.”
McQuisten, the mayor of
Baker City, said she talked
with Christensen and sev-
eral eastern Oregonians
who were at the Capitol on
Jan. 6. They were engaged
in “peaceful prayer,” she
claimed.
“None of the fi rst-person
accounts I’ve heard line up
with the media,” McQuisten
said.
News organizations
including the New York
Times have obtained thou-
sands of videos recorded
by both rioters and police
to reconstruct the events
of the hours-long siege on
the Capitol. Videos show
frantic scrambles between
police and protesters outside
and inside
the Capitol
as crowds
swarmed the
building.
Sizemore,
an anti-tax
activist who
McQuisten
was instru-
mental in
passing sev-
eral ballot
measures and
now owns a
painting busi-
Richardson
ness in Red-
mond, referred
to the Jan. 6 insurrection as
an “understatement.”
He accused Facebook
founder Mark Zucker-
berg of swaying election
results, a theory that stems
from grant money that elec-
tion offi ces throughout the
country received from a
nonprofi t organization sup-
ported by Zuckerberg.
Local election offi cials used
money to buy equipment,
including personal protec-
tive equipment for election
workers to reduce COVID
infection risks, to pay staff
and to adapt to changing
laws, including in several
states that greatly expanded
mail voting because of the
pandemic.
Sizemore said he was
initially hesitant to believe
false claims that the 2020
election was stolen, but
that he’s become convinced
people will do whatever it
takes to win.
“We’re going to need
more protests like Jan. 6,”
Sizemore said.
In an email to the Cap-
ital Chronicle, Sizemore
allowed that a “few bad
actors” engaged in wrong-
doing, but said Democrats
and journalists were trying
to make the incident seem
worse than it was.
McCloud, a Salem busi-
ness development analyst,
said the Capitol and all gov-
ernment buildings belong
to the American people and
they have the right to enter
it at any time.
Thielman, the former
superintendent of the Alsea
School District, said the
attempted insurrection was
a response to the govern-
ment failure.
“When our courts
wouldn’t hear it, when our
Congress wouldn’t hear it,
when our executive branch
wouldn’t hear it, we the
people did what our Consti-
tution allows us to do,” he
said. “It was a wonderful
patriotic protest.”
He told the Capital
Chronicle that the incident
became a “mess,” and that
he didn’t condone behavior
like storming the Capitol
or sitting in House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi’s desk, both of
which rioters did.
Richardson, a licensed
massage therapist from
White City, said she’s been
part of a group “canvassing”
elections in Jackson County,
going door to door to talk to
voters about fraud.
“Jan. 6 was not an insur-
rection,” she said. “Nov. 3
was, and we know that.”
She told the Capital
Chronicle that she stood by
her comments, and that she
believes the media skewed
perceptions of Jan. 6.
In November 2020,
Jackson County Clerk Chris
Walker found the phrase
“VOTE DON’T WORK.
NEXT TIME BULLETS”
painted in 6-foot letters
in the parking lot across
from her offi ce. Walker and
other county clerks still
receive regular threats and
angry calls and emails from
people about the 2020 elec-
tion, and they’re preparing
Manuel Balce Ceneta/The Associated Press, File
John Minchillo/The Associated Press, File
Smoke fi lls the inside of the U.S. Capitol during the siege of Jan. 6,
2021. The deadly attack brought together members of disparate
groups, creating the opportunity for extremists to establish links
with each other.
In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, fi le photo, violent protesters storm
the Capitol, in Washington.
to combat misinformation
about the 2022 election.
Christensen, Merritt and
McCloud did not imme-
diately respond to emails
Tuesday afternoon.
The Republican candi-
dates’ response to questions
about the Jan. 6 Capitol siege
refl ects a political divide in
Oregon.
Recent polling from the
Oregon Values and Beliefs
Center found that about
three-quarters of Democrats
described the events as an
attempted coup or insurrec-
tion, and most other Dem-
ocrats thought it was best
described as a “riot out
of control.” A plurality of
Republicans, 38%, said it
was an out-of-control riot,
but 16% described it as a rea-
sonable protest and nearly
a quarter said it was car-
ried out by Trump’s political
opponents.
The Oregon Republican
Party last year passed a reso-
lution declaring the incident a
“false fl ag” operation. Chris-
tine Drazan, then the House
GOP leader and now a can-
didate for governor, led all 23
House Republicans in con-
demning the state party for
that resolution.
Another candidate, Sandy
Mayor Stan Pulliam, has
spent months trying to walk
back comments he made to
Portland alt-weekly Willa-
mette Week shortly after Jan.
6 blaming Trump for inciting
violence. He now presents
himself as the only candidate
willing to say that the 2020
election was fraudulent.
2022
I
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