COLUMB – The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content sharing agreement.
A member of the State Board of Education organized a bus trip to Washington DC to attend a “Stop the Steal” event, which descended in a chaotic, seditious raid on the US Chapter, while Congress voted for the assertion of the presidential election.
Kirsten Hill, who was elected for a four-year term in 2018, arranged a bus to travel from Elyria, Ohio (departing at 3 a.m., Jan. 6) to arrive in Washington DC to join the event, according to an online page of the event. hosted by a group he leads.
The site, led by the TEA Party of Lorain County, hosts links to the now defunct site “www.wildprotest.com” to encourage registration. He lists Hill specifically as the organizer.
“#DoNotCertify # Jan6 #StopTheSteal #WildProtest” is shown in a graph of the event. “President Trump wants you in DC on January 6”
The event and the riot are inextricably linked to the untrue claim that President Donald Trump won the November election, not Biden. Proponents of this theory have unjustifiably claimed electoral fraud in several states that Biden won despite a lack of evidence, increasingly disregarded theories of fraud linking state governors to Hugo Chavez, or dozens of rejecting courts. requests.
Chris Krebs, director of the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency, said for 60 minutes that the election was “the safest in American history.” Trump fired him then.
On January 6, a day likely to live in infamy in US history, many hundreds, if not thousands, rushed to the US Chapter. Five people were killed, including Brian Sicknick, a Capitol police officer who was allegedly hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, and Ashli Babbitt, a woman shot by police officers trying to break down a Capitol door. Dozens of police officers were injured in the raid.
Insurgents attacked officers, destroyed historic properties in a lighthouse of American democracy, and delayed congressional certification of electoral college votes by several hours by brute force while lawmakers were evacuated.
It is unclear what role Ohio bus owners played in the riots, if any. Hill did not respond to several phone calls and emails on Monday.
Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, which first reported Hill’s participation in the rally, quoted her as saying that no member of the Ohio bus group had entered the Capitol.
“We are not harming the property,” she told the store. “It simply came to our notice then. We respect people’s property and public property. ”
“If by chance (or design) President Trump will be the one to be inaugurated on the 20thof, our fleet of buses is ready to leave “, it is specified.
The “Who we are” page of the site states that it is a declaration of independence from the “New World Order” written on December 20. The site is full of conspiracy misinformation.
“We recognize that our country is LITERALLY AT WAR and the enemy has penetrated behind our lines of defense, through the means of corruption for an extended period of several decades,” it states. “This war is first and foremost ideological, as much as it is political, economic, technological, biological and cyber. It is a silent war with the most devastating effects of the takeover and control masked by the disinformation campaign launched by the globalist media empire. ”
Hill is also one of several plaintiffs who have filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Health, provoking the “absolute tyranny” of state health orders, such as the mask warrant issued to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The process is based on conspiracy theories related to COVID-19, including the fact that the government knowingly suppresses the relative harmlessness of COVID-19 compared to other diseases.
Republican parties in some Ohio counties promote bus travel
Several other bus trips carrying Ohioans to the nation’s capital on Jan. 6 were promoted by Republican Party county organizations.
Republicans in Ashtabula, Portage and Trumbull counties shared a $ 219 overnight flyer. The flyers call the tour organizer Cathy Lukasko, identified in various 2020 news reports as the auxiliary president of the Republican Party of Trumbull County.
In a separate post, the Ashtabula County page noted January 6 as the date of a “wild protest” in DC
The Geauga County Republican Party shared registration information at www.OHpatriots.org, while the Van Wert County Republican Party provided details about a trip from northwest Ohio. On New Year’s Eve, the Jefferson County Republican Party asked supporters interested in making a trip from Steubenville to contact the party by e-mail, “so they can determine if there are enough people.”
“We are posting this, but it is not sponsored by the Jefferson County Republican Party. We will send your information to the organizer “, the post states, mentioning a cost of” approximately 50-75 USD per person “.
The Republican Party of Hocking County shared its own advertising leaflet for a January 6 rally in the capital, entitled “TAKE AMERICA BACK.”
“BE THERE”, reads the flyer. “IT WILL BE WILD.”
Tyler Buchanan contributed to this report.