Sen. Mike Shirkey, the highest ranking Republican elected official in Michigan, said he believes the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol was not carried out by supporters of former Donald Trump, calling the idea a “hoax” and stating that the attacked was “staged.”
The ludicrous and inaccurate comments were made by Shirkey during a meeting with Hillsdale County Republican Party officials, one day before the party censured him for not doing enough to support Trump and stand up to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
A video of the meeting was first reported on by Detroit Metro Times.
Shirkey also takes aim several times at Michigan’s Democratic governor in the video, sexualizing her in comments about budget negotiations and saying he contemplated challenging her to a fistfight outside the state Capitol.
The Senate leader also acknowledges discussing the General Election results during a November meeting with Trump at the White House.
In the video, Shirkey makes a number of false claims about the deadly assault on the Capitol, which left seven people dead.
Hundreds of people stormed the building during a joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College results for Joe Biden.
The crowd invaded the Capitol after leaving a rally where Trump and many surrogates spoke.
The House subsequently impeached Trump, determining he instigated the attack.
“That wasn’t Trump people. That’s been a hoax from day one,” Shirkey says in the video. “It was all staged,” he adds.
There is no evidence that the crowd of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol was infiltrated by other political groups.
People who participated in the insurrection were known Trump supporters, including Michael Foy, the man from Wixom who hit police with a hockey stick during the breach while wearing a Trump flag.
Foy had previously attended a rally of Trump supporters in Detroit on Nov. 6 outside the TCF Center where Detroit’s absentee ballots were counted.
Shirkey suggests D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, had a role in egging on the violence.
“Hell, Mitch McConnell was part of it,” Shirkey says. “I think they wanted to have a mess.”
When one of the men meeting with Shirkey asks whether Shirkey thought Bowser was behind the assault on the Capitol, Shirkey replies, “I think she’s just a puppet.”
There is no evidence that Bowser or McConnell played any role in orchestrating or supporting the attack, which the two have fervently spoken out against.
Biden won Michigan in the 2020 election.