From prison to podium: Iowa GOP welcomes Capitol rioter as guest speaker
The party of law and order?
If there’s any story that better summarizes the divide among the American people, I don’t know what it would be.
The Des Moines Register reports that the Dallas County Republican party invited Kyle Young of Redfield to speak to their meeting last night. Normally, local parties invite a current office holder or a candidate for office to discuss their priorities and ask for help raising money, putting out yard signs and the like.
There are several remarkable things about the invitation to Kyle Young. First, he’s not running for office, so far as I know. Secondly, he should be in prison.
Kyle Young pleaded guilty to charges from his actions during the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. According to court documents, Young “joined the rioters who were pushing against the police line. While in the tunnel area beneath the Archway, he held a strobe light toward the police line and pushed forward a stick-like object. He assisted in throwing a large audio speaker toward the police line. As officers began to push the mob back from the doors around 3:18 p.m., another rioter pulled a Metropolitan Police Department officer through the tunnel and into the crowd outside.”
Court documents continue: “The MPD officer – wearing a uniform, marked helmet and tactical vest – was assaulted while he was in the mob by rioters, including Young. Young held the officer’s left wrist and pulled the officer’s arm away from his body. The MPD officer was then swept further in the crowd. He was rendered momentarily helpless when an individual repeatedly applied a taser to the back of his neck.”
Beaten officer: “I hope you suffer”
That officer, Michael Fanone, had a heart attack after the assault and retired. Fanone testified at Young’s sentencing, saying, “The assault on me by Mr. Young cost me my career.” Fanone then turned to Young and said “I hope you suffer” in prison.
Young did not contest the federal charges. He pleaded guilty. He received a prison sentence of more than seven years – the longest of any Iowan convicted in the January 6th riots. The federal judge in the case compared Young to “a one man wrecking ball” whose crimes were “some of the darkest acts committed on one of our nation’s darkest days.”
Of course, seven years in prison turned into a get-out-of-jail-free card when Donald Trump pardoned ALL of the January 6th defendants on his first day in office – even the violent offenders.
A closed meeting…
With Kyle Young back in Iowa, somebody at the Dallas County Republican party, casting about for a good speaker for this month’s meeting, thought – how about that one man wrecking ball!
Dallas County Republican Central Committee Chair Madonna Johnson told the Register, “He’s out of jail, and he has a story to tell, and we wanted to invite him and allow him to tell his story.”
Normally, the Dallas County GOP meetings are open to the news media, but when the Register found out about Young’s scheduled appearance, suddenly the meeting was closed to the press.
I wonder why. Could it be because they didn’t want to look like fools in the eyes of the entire state of Iowa for inviting a “one man wrecking ball” who committed “some of the darkest acts on one of our nation’s darkest days”? Is that really who Dallas County Republicans want to rally around?
Kudos to the Register and reporter William Morris for finding out about the meeting and writing about it anyway.
Reasonable Iowans should be shocked that some Iowa Republicans obviously have bought into Trump’s attempt to rewrite history by calling January 6th “a day of love,” and that those arrested, charged and sentenced were treated “so unfairly.” Reasonable Iowans should be shocked that Republicans who so often “back the blue” would be willing to feature a meeting with somebody convicted of beating up cops.
A nation divided
But this is where we are today – as a nation and a state. On one side, there are reasonable people who believe in the rule of law. Reasonable people believe if you do the crime, you should do the time.
On the other side are unreasonable, unprincipled people who believe in only one thing – Donald J. Trump – and whatever he is selling. They have lost their moral compass. They can no longer tell right from wrong. They worship the bad guys, the crackpots, the incompetent Pete Hegseths. They believe in sweeping innocent people off the streets and rushing them off to foreign hellhole prisons with no due process. They support defunding libraries. Libraries!
One can only imagine what inspiring message Young delivered to the Dallas County GOP, but it is my sincere hope that wiser heads in the party will tell their leaders that this was a terrible idea. I am not holding my breath.
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This story makes Iowa—the GOP— feel even scarier to me. It is the party of disorder and dysfunction. Thank you for keeping this in the spotlight!
Ah yes, nothing says “party of law and order” like rolling out the red carpet for a one-man wrecking ball who assaulted a metro police officer. Maybe next month they’ll invite a bank robber to teach a seminar on fiscal responsibility.