tv Washington Journal Matt Braynard CSPAN September 18, 2021 3:27am-4:02am EDT
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"washington journal" continues. host: the conversation now with matt braynard. he is the organizer of justice for j6 rally taking place tomorrow. matt braynard, who are the people you don't believe have gotten justice related to january 6. guest: before that, i want to clarify something. there has been a lot of misinformation about this rally.
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when we begin this advocacy, we condemn all violence. we believe those that destroyed property at the capitol building or hurt police officers should be given a speedy trial, if guilty, convicted. the vast majority of people arrested in that event not charged with committing crime -- not charged with committing violence or destruction of property. historically, these individuals have been given a slap on the wrist. when alexandria ocasio-cortez stormed the speaker's office and had a sit in, those people were arrested and released. when the kavanaugh confirmation hearings were interrupted by activists, those people were arrested for interfering with government business, given a fine, and released. there is a disparity between how
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those people are being treated and how these people are being treated. it is not about what they did but about what they believe and that is what makes them political nurse. -- political prisoners. we are anti-violence. we have had two protests in d.c. already. we look forward to having a very safe, peaceful expression of our rights. host: what is the program tomorrow? caller: we are going to start with the pledge and a prayer. i will be speaking and my cohost started is similar organization will be narrating the event. we will have family members who have been victimized by this persecution. we will have two aspiring congressional candidates there. i will speak a little bit and we will sing some songs. host: what is the goal by the
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time the rally is over? caller: -- guest: what we want to do is put a spotlight on the mistreatment of these individuals and encourage legislators to deliver real justice to these people. that means in many cases dropping charges or arguing and allowing for these folks who have been in solitary confinement without a conviction or without access to their families -- no conviction, in prison for nine months without the option for a bail. -- without the option for bail. they should at least be allowed to go home. host: how many people argue talking about and do you think they should all be released? is there anyone you think represents a threat? caller: -- guest: we are talking broadly about 700 individuals. the most are not charged with violence. a lot has been released to go
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home. we believe those are political prisoners as well because of the treatment they have. we have the most current database of everyone arrested, including indications of who is incarcerated and where. of those incarcerated, there is a significant number not charged with any violence. one guy is being held because of a threat of interstate commerce. there are many people who have been accused of violence who are charged with real violence and have been released under house arrest with the same violence charges as those being health. being held. -- as those being held. all men are innocent until proven guilty. although there is evidence where it seems they engaged in something violent and deserve their day in court -- especially those not accused of violence, those charged with conspiracy or interstate commerce, being held
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in solitary confinement. that is completely immoral. they should at least be granted bail. host: you're rally is getting a lot of attention in d.c., a lot of conversation this week. what you say to those critics who are calling this an attempt to whitewash the violence of january 6? guest: we condemn the violence on january 6. we think everyone who engaged in it should be arrested. we think the federal government to is sitting on 14,000 hours of video from that day should release that video so these individuals can be held accountable. we are a peaceful organization. we have had two events without any issue -- without any violence. i think most would agree with us. i do not think there is anyone in d.c. thinks a police
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department who clears itself -- that is what has happened to ashli babbitt. for her we are demanding there is a public investigation to determine whether that was a legitimate use of force. everyone in d.c. agrees with me. it would be wrong for a police department to clear itself in the killing of an unarmed citizen. there needs to be a further investigation. i know a majority of people believe someone who has not been accused of violence should not be in solitary confinement for nine months got the opportunity for bail. the more people learn about this, the more they agree they are on our side. this is not about president trump or president biden. it does not matter what your party is, this is a civil rights battle. this is what we are standing up for. host: we are talking with matt braynard, the organizer for the justice for j6 rally taking place on the foot of capitol
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hill on the east end of the national mall. he is with us for another 15 or 20 minutes. you can call in. for democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. folks are calling in. what is lookahead america? guest: we are an america first community organizer. whether to change policy at the local level or at the state level or the national level. for generations, the left has dominated community organizing. on the right, that has been a dirty word. when i say community organizer, people think of barack obama. on the right, he was mocked for that. how is this community organizer going to run for president? that was a mistake on our part.
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the community organizing is a powerful tool. that is where lookahead america comes in. we are eager to lead on this front. whether it is a local battle against crt or a state battle for voter integrity or at the national level. host: what is your background? you worked for the trump campaign? guest: i was the director of data and strategy for the trump campaign. i have worked on five presidential campaigns going back to the mid-1990's. i engaged in community organizing in 1994 against the clinton health care plan. i have been involved with hundreds of elections and nonprofit groups. i started this group in 2017. it failed. we we lasted this year and i think we are hitting our stride. we have leadership in 40 states. we have 2500 to 3000 volunteers. we are growing. we are having 17 rallies across
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the country and state capitals and it is all volunteer driven. all of this is paid for by donations that are very small. apart for one program for voter registration, we do not have any big donors. it is paid for by grassroots. host: is this your full-time job? guest: partially. i also worked as a general consultant. i work for a nonprofit full-time. i am paid a small salary, $60,000 just have to live on so i also worked as a consultant. host: how much do you make from this group? guest: $60,000. that is my salary. it is public information because it is on our 990. we are getting our status reestablished with the irs. host: matt braynard is here to
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take your calls. lauren is up first in redwood city, california. caller: good morning. i believe matt braynard is talking out of both sides of his mouth. he says at one point that january 6 was peaceful and then he says look at the video and the video shows a bunch of violence. the police were being beaten by trump supporters using american flags and fire extinguishers and everything. it is wrong with him to characterize the january 6 insurrection is as peaceful -- insurrectionists when the video you are showing right now shows violence. caller: -- guest: what is your name? caller: my name is lorene. guest: d believe that someone
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who never laid a finger -- we consider that there are bad actors. do you believe that someone who never laid a finger on a place officer should be in solitary confinement without bail for nine months? let's have some moral clarity here. host: let her finish her comment. caller: the intent is what is important. we understand what was the intent of those people at the capital that day. you cannot say people who marched around and got in the way of the other police department trying to get rid of the violent ones are innocent. host: we will let matt braynard respond. guest: i give you a very realistic scenario. you do not know the details of the case yet you say you know the intent of these people.
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the intent is their first amendment rights. i agree they should not have been in the building it was naivete on their part. this stood in rope lines, they did not destroy stuff. they walk in, take a few pictures, get a selfie with a capitol police officer and walk out. not even convicted, do you think these individuals should be in solitary confinement? d believe the people who stormed the offices of alexandria ocasio-cortez were terrorists? they were just expressing their rights in the same way as a citizen. host: david, good morning. caller: good morning. this has more to do with equal protection under the law than anything else. the majority of people at that protest, that is what motivated
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them. they watched months of the u.s. being set on fire from coast-to-coast by anitfa and other groups whose profession was openly to destroy the system. the people who came to washington were not there to destroy the system. there were plenty of fbi informants and people on the scene. the fbi released a memo that says 95% of the people there were part of an organization. they were not pursuing any planned insurrection. the person that called and said intent is what is important. those people were not fair with the intent of destroying the government. no one was arrested with a gun. as the fellow said, there is no
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place in the country where an unarmed person can be shot by anyone in authority without having an investigation. host: we will let matt braynard jump in. guest: president trump's inauguration, over 250 anitfa activists were arrested. not for prorating for threatening interstate commerce which is what these people have been accused of, but for real violence. destroying police cars, destroying property. over 200 of them had charges dropped. they did not spend a day in prison. they did not have their faces put on billboards or the fbi come to their homes. they did not lose their jobs, etc. this is about equal fairness under the law. it is about people being persecuted for what they did but for what they believe.
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i get it, a lot of people hate donald trump. i get it. that does not mean you have to hit us and our fight for justice -- you have to hate us and our fight for justice. i think that hatred for donald trump is blending people. you do not have to agree with these people. you at least have to agree they needed to be treated fairly and under the laws of our constitution. they cannot be punished because of what they believe. that is unfair. host: you talk about former president trump. we talked with scott mcfarland earlier this week. he has been tracking these cases at the courthouse. he brought up the fact that in some of these filings, prosecutors are using some of the comments former president trump had made about the election as reasons to keep these people in jail.
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this is a little bit of our interview with him. [video clip] >> the former president's words made life more difficult for a lot of these defendants. a lot are being held in jail pretrial. dozens of them are being held pending trial. like many defendants in detention, they are trying to get themselves released back home until trial. nobody was to be in jail. they say they will not be a danger to the community. we have seen judges, -- judges specifically say that donald trump's denial of the 2020 election makes people more dangerous to the community. they excited donald trump's words -- they cited donald trump's words in holding these people. saying that donald trump and the denial of the election potentially makes some of these
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defendants more dangerous. guest: that is asinine and immoral, you cannot hold these people who in many cases are not being accused of violence. despite the fact that you have not been convicted of anything and under the law you are innocent, you cannot be released on home arrest or bail. there is a problem with our judiciary and prosecutors. we have seen prosecutors going into the courtroom and sing that multiple capitol police officers were murdered that day, that is a falsehood. this is a travesty of justice. that is why you need any organization like us and you need to patriots showing up advocating for this. if the justice system was delivering these people speedy trials, convicting them or finding them innocent, preventing -- presenting evidence, we would not need to do this.
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i don't want to have to do this. we are primarily a voter registration organization but we need to step up. the judiciary system is broken and we need our legislators to fix it. host: the line for independents, good morning. caller: how much do i love c-span? i love c-span immensely. i am thankful for this platform for us to hear individuals like mr. matt. we need to value the beautiful rights we have been bestowed with here in the u.s. it is patriots versus unpatriotic individuals. that is not a recipe for american people. thank you for bringing light to this shadow. how can we, the american people,
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bring back political cohesion to the united states so there can be prosperity and we do have the ability to pursue our happiness? thank you so much for c-span. thank you to brian lamb. guest: a great political leader once said that their loyalty to our country we will discover loyalty to each other. that is the heart of the mission of lookahead america. we are trying to bring people together on behalf of the america first movement. i encourage the listener to attend the rally in d.c. i want to make something clear, i think why this rally on september 18 is getting criticism is because to many the political leadership of this country is more threatening than what happened january 6. when people feel manipulated, they engage in violence.
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it is easy for the political establishment to deal with that, they just send the fbi and throw them away. when you have a large people group, it is not easy to deal with that. you have to confront their message. our message is winning. there is a poll showing a majority of americans agree with us. even 45% of democrats agree with us. i have seen polling that shows the same thing. a will organized expression of our first american rights where you just cannot sick the fbi on us is very threatening. host: in pennsylvania, this is drew -- this is joe the democrat. caller: unconstitutional -- on constitution day, being exposed to this argument, i wonder if this man has studied about the
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baled issues in this country and the inequality of hundreds of hundreds of people being held for two to three years before going to trial. i am amazed that a peaceful demonstration -- he just used the term inherently evil in saying some of the people who participated january 6. he is trying to use a moral compass to justify what happened january 6. i was a schoolteacher. if my students acted in that manner, not only would they have been thrown out of school, they would have been arrested for such behavior. those people who entered quote -- entered "peacefully" and took
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pictures with capitol police officers, i would like to see how many of those were arrested. i would like to see this travesty of a moral position when it was an insurrection. they are people who committed violence. if someone committed violence within our system, a mass murderer or serial killer, they are not released before trial. they are not given homebound surveillance. they are kept because they are a threat to society. some of these people acted with great violence. therefore, to justify that with that they are political prisoners is beyond belief. if they were patriots, -- think of the boston tea party. those people dumped tea into a river. host: i'm going to let matt braynard respond. guest: the boston tea party, they broke into a ship, stole
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tea, and dumped it into a river. that is worse than what many of the people being arrested and held without bail were accused of. i am not disagreeing with the charges brought against them. i am saying according to the charges brought against them -- threats to commit interstate commerce and some without any violent charges at all. those are straight from the department of justice. we had the largest database of people who have been arrested. there are people being held for nine months rooted less than those at the austin tea party. host: a lot of concerns among security officials on capitol hill, the folks who granted you the permit for this rally tomorrow, the threat of violence
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tomorrow. this from the abc news story out yesterday on the new department of homeland security alert warning that some individuals involved in the rally may "seek to engage in balance -- engage in violence but lacked indication of a specific or credible plot associated with the event." "a small number of -- small groups of individuals can mobilize to violence with little to no warning, particularly in response to confrontational encounters with perceived opponents or calls for escalation by key influencers. the likely use of encrypted or
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closed communication platforms by those seeking to commit violence challenges law-enforcement's ability to identify and disrupt potential plotting." guest: you cannot have a peaceful because there are shadowy threats of violence in the corner? we have been in communication with the park police, the polyp -- the metropolitan police. we have put on two successful rallies without an incident. we are going to continue that. we had a large diplomatic security force. we have plans to keep everybody safe. host: that is a security force you have hired? guest: yes, but they are grouped in with the capitol police officers. host: are they aren't? are they -- are they armed?
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guest: not to my knowledge. we want to keep everybody safe. i believe it is my responsibility to keep everyone safe. we are asking people who leave to leave in large groups. we are asking people if you see anything suspicious -- we all have television studios in our pocket, start recording. the capitol police has done a good job coordinating with us. despite the political leadership on capitol hill, i know they are doing their best to keep this peaceful and safe and protect the people. there is no intent of violence on our side. our purpose is to show that the first amendment still matters, you can still peacefully protest. community organizing can be done successfully and you do not have to resort to apathy or violence. host: eugene in boston,
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massachusetts. you are next. caller: good morning. mr. matt braynard, i see right through you. i voted for donald trump in 201o see real change, but what he did on january 6 was dead wrong. what i saw was treason and sedition. the people involved with that, they should be charged with that, as well. the law for treason and sedition is they are supposed to be summarily shot. i think people that show up to support treason and sedition, i think people should be immediately locked up. guest: that is an interesting accusation. you accused me of being a phony
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but you did not provide any evidence. i can assure you i am legitimate. you said they should be shot. do you think alexandria ocasio-cortez should be shot? he is still listening and soak can the audience? it is quite asinine. we condemn violence, we condemn political violence. many of the people who were there were not engaged in it. they simply were in the wrong place, wrong time, as many people have been in history. we have seen them. just two months ago, there was a protest that blockaded the white house. you probably never heard of that. those folks were arrested and released. this is about equal treatment. i understand many people are blinded by their hatred of donald trump. i get it.
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do not let that blind you to the injustice of our government. the way these people are being treated, must agree it is a moral and unconstitutional. host: illinois, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. hopefully i get to talk to you a little bit and you will not cut me off. he probably will cut me off. while you are speaking, he is showing clips of the worst of the worst on january 6. he is not sure you clips where the officers invited them in. my first, has since they had the hearings on capitol hill, the whole thing was basically set up with the people in front of capitol hill before the speech was even done. the reason i say that, there was this one young black guy in front of the white house, sitting in a platform, standing,
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with a megaphone, saying we are going to pull donald trump out of the white house. the destroyed property. this same man was on capitol hill on january 6 with different hats, changing his looks, standing next to the white, unarmed woman who was murdered, taking her. went on cnn, another cable channel, each channel paid him $30,000 a piece to be there, film all of this, yet he is not locked up right now. guest: i agree. i agree with the caller. i have to say, john, it is pretty disingenuous and very un- c-span like while i'm speaking while not showing people
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behaving peacefully, engaging in friendly ways with capitol police. if it bleeds it leads, but that is fairly disingenuous of you. host: we have been running it continuously. the question about the footage, what is in the footage? this is a topic other callers have brought up. the footage you want released, what is in their we need to see? guest: you are a journalist, right? i believe you are. does it not bother you that 14,000 hours of videotape is being held back by the federal government? in any other case, how would that not cause a journalist to have widespread heartburn and anger? the capitol hill police department is immune to that. with any other group, could file a freedom of information act. we deserve to see that footage. in many cases, that evidence is useful to the defense of people who have been charged, yet the
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federal government is still not releasing that. people who depend on that to be able to defend themselves in court. i think just journalistic curiosity, or a demand for transparency, should cause you and all other journalist to insist it to be released. host: what time is the rally tomorrow? guest: it is at noon. we urge you to get there early. host: matt braynard is the executive director of lookahead america, the rally organizer fos
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