DeSantis rejects 'insurrection' label for Jan. 6

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday declined to label the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Riot an "insurrection" rejecting the common left-wing narrative that the episode constituted a concerted effort to overthrow the American government.

DeSantis made the remarks during an interview with Russell Brand, who asked the Republican about the Jan. 6 incident.

"Do you think that they were insurrectionists, as described? Do you consider them to be protesters?" he asked.

The Florida characterized the event as a protest that degraded into a less orderly episode, but categorically rejected the idea of a conscious and uniform plan to overthrow the government.

"It was not an insurrection," he responded. "These are people that were there to attend a rally and then they were there to protest."

"Now, it devolved, and it devolved into a riot," he conceded. "But the idea that this was a plan to somehow overthrow the government of the United States is not true, and it's something that the media had spun up just to try to basically, you know, get as much mileage out of it and use it for partisan and for political aim."

"We just have to be honest about it," he continued. "If somebody is honestly doing an insurrection against the U.S. government then prove that that's the case, and I’d be happy to accept it."

"But all you’re showing me is that there are a lot of protesters there. And it ended up devolving, you know, in ways that was unfortunate, of course, but to say that they were seditionists is just wrong," he concluded.

DeSantis's remarks come amid former President Donald Trump's announcement that he received a target letter from the special counsel Jack Smith's office ordering him to appear before a grand jury in relation to his Jan. 6 probe.

"Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden's DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and indictment," Trump stated on Truth Social earlier this week.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.