- A man who was portrayed at the table by Mayor Nancy Pelosi as pro-Trump protesters stormed the United States Capitol building on Wednesday, said on Facebook last week that he was a white nationalist.
- The man, who identified himself as Richard Barnett of Gravette, Arkansas, in a New York Times interview, he also said he was “not afraid” of dying violently.
- Barnett had previously raised money for a QAnon-supported cause and told local Arkansas media that he believed the presidential election was stolen from Trump.
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A man who was depicted sitting at the table of Mayor Nancy Pelosi, as protesters in support of President Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol building on Wednesday, recently said he is a white nationalist who is prepared for a violent death.
The man, who identified himself as Richard Barnett of Gravette, Arkansas, in a New York Times interview, posted about white nationalism on a Facebook page that he kept under the pseudonym “George Reincarnated Patton” after the WWII general, according to the Washington Post.
“Now we have a term that fits me and many others and they try to make it bad. I am white. There is no denying that. I am a nationalist. I put my nation first. So, that makes me a white nationalist ”. he said on Saturday, adding, “F —— We are nationalists. Aren’t you? So get out of our nation.”
In a separate December post, Barnett said he “came into this world kicking and screaming, covered in someone else’s blood” and that “he was not afraid to leave in the same way,” the Post reported.
Barnett’s Facebook has already been blocked or removed, but Washington Post reporter Jon Swaine posted screenshots on Twitter:
—Jon Swaine (@jonswaine) January 7, 2021
Barnett, who goes by “Bigo,” spoke to New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg outside the Capitol after visiting Pelosi’s desk.
The 60-year-old man told Rosenberg that he took a personalized envelope that belonged to Pelosi and “left a 25 cent coin on his desk”.
“I didn’t steal it. I bled because they were catching me and I couldn’t see,” Barnett said, according to the video posted on Twitter by Rosenberg. “So I thought, ‘Well, I’m in her office, I have blood in her office, I’m going to put a 25-cent coin on her desk, even if it’s not worth it.'”
He also said he wrote her an “unpleasant note” – the photos show a note on Pelosi’s desk that said “WE WILL NOT BACK UP”.
Barnett was quickly recognized by publications in Arizona, including the Eagle-Observer, which reported that he raised more than $ 1,000 for an anti-trafficking campaign “Save our Children” that had been propagated by QAnon, a conspiracy organization that shares misinformation about child sex trafficking.
Barnett also attended a “Stop the Steal” rally in support of Trump in Arkansas in November, and told local news station KNWA that he believed the electoral fraud had cost Trump the presidential election.
He told KNWA on Wednesday that he had not been arrested in Wednesday’s riot, but was escorted out of Capitol Hill after receiving tear gas.
He told the publication that he and his family had received several threats.
Law enforcement resumed the Capitol on Wednesday night, and Congress completed its certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Trump.