U.S. Representative Ken Buck’s big wet sloppy kiss to Attorney General Merrick Garland last week could not have come at worse time for the Colorado Republican.
Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the federal court in Washington, D.C. was in the process of ordering prison time typically applied to murderers, drug traffickers, and serial child pornographers for five members of the Proud Boys convicted of no serious crime related to January 6. A well-known gun storage company faced backlash for assisting the FBI in yet another armed raid against a January 6 trespasser. And a young man from Utah took his own life just weeks after his arrest on four misdemeanors for his participation in January 6, at least the fourth known suicide of a Capitol protester.
The political Right fumed with rage on social media. Some Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates also cried foul. “This is wrong & it’s sad that I’m the only candidate with the spine to say it,” Vivek Ramaswamy posted on X on September 5. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has attempted to downplay January 6 as a political concern, also denounced the unequal treatment of January 6 protesters. “They may have been violent, but to say it’s