Who's Ray Epps? NYT Pens Puff Piece Claiming Alleged Jan. 6th Inciter is 'Victim' of a 'Conspiracy Theory'

Nick Kangadis | July 15, 2022
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If you’ve been following the controversies surrounding the events that occurred on January 6, 2021 — and I don’t mean the farce hearings the House has been conducting — then you know the name Ray Epps.

Epps is the man who was caught on video multiple times — both on January 5, 2021 and January 6 — attempting to incite people to enter the U.S. Capitol building on the day the current vice president put alongside 9/11 and the attack on Pearl Harbor as days that will “echo throughout history.”

Fast forward to this past Wednesday and you’ll see the historically far-left, communist sympathizing rag The New York Times publish a “puff piece” on Epps and how his involvement in inciting the events of Jan. 6 is just a “conspiracy theory” and that Epps is a “victim.”

As the NYT reported:

Ray Epps has suffered enormously in the past 10 months as right-wing media figures and Republican politicians have baselessly described him as a covert government agent who helped to instigate the attack on the Capitol last year.

Strangers have assailed him as a coward and a traitor and have menacingly cautioned him to sleep with one eye open. He was forced to sell his business and his home in Arizona. Fearing for his safety and uncertain of his future, he and his wife moved into a mobile home in the foothills of the Rockies, with all of their belongings crammed into shipping containers in a high-desert meadow, a mile or two away.

“And for what — lies?” Mr. Epps asked the other day with a look of pained exhaustion. “All of this, it’s just been hell.”

That’s all well and good, but what “lies” is Epps talking about? There are multiple videos showing him seemingly masquerading as a supporter of former President Donald Trump while telling others that they should go INTO the Capitol building, to which actual Trump supporters even went so far as to chant in his direction the term “fed,” short for federal agent.

Related: Even Jeh Johnson Admits Democrats' Jan. 6th Committee ‘May Have Overreached'

One man who has been following the evolution of the story of Jan. 6, and who has extensively researched Epps’ involvement is Revolver News' Darren Beattie. Beattie made an appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Thursday evening and said the following concerning Epps:

Let’s take all of this in. The one person caught repeatedly urging people into the Capitol, as early as January 5th, is the one person that all of the January 6th riot participants that the New York Times just happens to write this ultra sympathetic puff piece for. It’s quite remarkable. To look at the piece itself, as you suggested in your intro, there’s some real glaring omissions from a journalistic standpoint to have access to this guy [Epps].

Number one: In the entire piece, there is no blanket, explicit denial on the part of Epps to have been associated with any intelligence group, DHS [Department of Homeland Security], JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task Force], military intelligence, so forth. It just reiterates his very legal denial of being involved with law enforcement.

Number two: The piece describes Epps as a Trump supporter. He just went to D.C. to defend Trump and to attend the speech on a last minute thing with his son to attend Trump’s speech on election fraud. The only thing is, Epps didn’t attend the speech. Epps travels all the way from Arizona to D.C., this big Trump supporter, and he doesn’t even attend the speech? Instead, he fixates on this bizarre mission to get everyone to go into the Capitol? And by the way, he just happens to be hanging out right by the initial breach point near the Peace Monument on the west side of the Capitol before the Proud Boys even get there?

And thirdly, where did Ray Epps get this idea? This whole piece doesn’t explore that question at all. Here is the one person calling for everyone to go in. Where did you get that idea, Ray Epps? Did it occur to you out of nowhere? Did someone tell you to do it? This piece, shockingly, does not explore question at all, which is the paramount question that’s really the animating, the alleged animating focus of the January 6th Committee.

Unless you watched Carlson’s program, you might not have known those things about this particular person, hence the lengthy transcription of what Beattie told the Fox News host.

Leave it to The New York Times to muddy the waters in terms of the actual events of a major news story. Narratives are the key, and no one deals in better written propaganda than “The Gray Lady.”

For video of Carlson's segment on Epps from Thursday evening, watch below:

 

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