Climate Deniers Moved Rapidly to Spread Misinformation During and After Attack on US Capitol

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Prominent climate science deniers moved rapidly to spread false and misleading conspiracy theories online during and after the attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters this week.

Some climate deniers, including some with ties to the Heartland Institute and other organizations that have historically helped to create the false impression that there is sizeable scientific disagreement on climate change, also directly expressed support for the attackers and called for more violence.

โ€œStriking fear in politicians is not a bad thing,โ€ the @ClimateDepot Twitter account tweeted on the afternoon of January 6 in a message describing the Capitol as then-โ€œunder siege.โ€

โ€œThomas Jefferson: โ€˜The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,โ€ @ClimateDepot tweeted seconds later.

โ€œWhatโ€™s needed next is mass protests to storm state Capitols and the CDC to end Covid lockdowns once and for all,โ€ the thread continued, referring to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The @ClimateDepot Twitter account, created in April 2009, is held by Marc Morano, the communications director for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank with a history of receiving funding from ExxonMobil and the conservative dark money organization Donors Trust. Morano serves as the executive director of CFACTโ€™s climatedepot.com website, which as DeSmogโ€™s database profile puts it, โ€œregularly publishes articles questioning man-made global warming.โ€

Screenshot of Twitter thread posted by @ClimateDepot on the afternoon of January 6, 2021.

Morano has for many years played a prominent role in the climate denial movement. The Heartland Institute currently maintains a biography of Morano under its โ€œWho We Areโ€ section, noting his prior role as a โ€œclimate researcher for U.S. Senator James Inhofe,โ€ who has regularly made speeches rejecting mainstream climate science. Rolling Stone once called Morano โ€œthe Matt Drudge of climate denial.โ€ He more recently authored a book titled, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate ChangeCFACTโ€™s most recent tax filings show Morano was its highest-compensated employee, bringing in over $209,000 in pay and benefits in 2018.

On January 6, after the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) โ€” whose board of directors includes senior officials with ExxonMobil and numerous other fossil fuel companies โ€” posted a statement condemning the violence at the Capitol Building, @ClimateDepot retweeted a reply to that statement reading: โ€œNAM has always been a bootlicking organization groveling at the booted feet of their governmental masters.โ€

Many fossil fuel industry groups immediately condemned the insurgency in statements or social media posts, and some long-time climate deniers did as well. But Morano was not the only prominent science denier to express support online for the mob attack in D.C.

William M. Briggs, described by the Heartland Institute as one of its policy advisors, published a post on January 7 headlined, โ€œwe fought the good fight and we lost โ€” this battle.โ€ In the piece, Briggs claims that โ€œCongress had an unarmed Air Force veteran shot and killedโ€ and misleadingly claims that โ€œthe crowd, by doing very little, by remaining inside the tourist ropes inside the building, even, forced the startled regime into hiding.โ€

Briggsโ€™ post goes on to describe Republican politiciansโ€™ later condemnation of Wednesdayโ€™s attack as โ€œthe most disgusting display of cowardice and abject surrender weโ€™re likely to see in our lifetimes.โ€

โ€œSome of us will be in deep kimchi because of this, but there are no regrets,โ€ Briggsโ€™s post continued. โ€œOne thing is certain. They will be coming for us.โ€

DeSmog reviewed numerous accounts during and in the wake of the Capitol attack. Social media posts show that several other climate science deniers, like the UK-based columnist James Delingpole and Steve Milloy, publisher of the JunkScience.com website, joined many on the far-right in circulating false information suggesting that it was not the visible pro-Trump participants who had been planning online for weeks to โ€œoccupy the Capitol,โ€ but instead members of their opposition โ€” the loose, left-wing movement known as antifa โ€” that actually invaded the building. On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that there was โ€œno substantive evidenceโ€ that any antifa supporters had participated in the pro-Trump insurrection, adding that many claims of antifa involvement had cited a soure that had, in fact, reported neo-Nazi participation. 


Screenshot of retweet by @JunkScience on the afternoon of January 6, 2021.

Others in DeSmogโ€™s Climate Disinformation Database, like the conservative media organization Prager U, used their social media presence to share messaging that sought to shift focus to last summerโ€™s Black Lives Matter uprisings.

Detailed information about precisely what happened inside the Capitol Building on Wednesday โ€” and what led to those events โ€” is still continuing to emerge. But what is clear is that neo-Nazis and long-time far-right Trump supporters were documented, and in many cases documented themselves, participating in the mob violence inside the Capitol Building.

โ€œThe goal isnโ€™t necessarily to convince anyone of anything,โ€ Melissa Ryan, author of the Ctrl Alt-Right Delete weekly newsletter covering the alt-right and CEO of CARD Strategies, told DeSmog. โ€œThe goal is to sow so much confusion that itโ€™s actually hard for people to tell the truth from fiction.โ€

That misinformation benefits the far-right, she said.

โ€œThey did the same after Charlottesville,โ€ said Ryan, who has previously written about interactions between climate deniers and QAnon conspiracy theorists. โ€œThey do the same after any of their protests that cause violence. The goal is to cause confusion amongst viewers, those amongst their audience that might have a little trepidation about being associated with violent extremist groups, so โ€˜both sidesโ€™ is sort of how they neutralize that.โ€

Several accounts associated with climate science deniers focused in particular on pictures of Jake Angeli, who wore face paint and a horned helmet on January 6, with these accounts suggesting that Angeli was a member of antifa. Angeli, however, is better known as โ€œthe QAnon shaman.โ€

โ€œHeโ€™s absolutely a QAnon right-wing follower,โ€ said Ryan.

Attempts to shift blame away from those visibly participating in the invasion and to antifa were later also spread in Congress by Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida who was met with audible boos on the House floor when he suggested that the Capitol attack was by people โ€œmasqueradingโ€ as Trump supporters โ€” a word choice made all the more ironic by the fact that many participating in the apparent coup attempt were not wearing masks despite the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

And of course, President Trump himself may perhaps be the worldโ€™s best-known climate science denier. Earlier in the day on January 6, he had addressed members of the soon-to-be mob in person, calling on them to โ€œwalk down to the Capitolโ€ and adding that โ€œyou will never take back our country with weakness.โ€ Later that day, in a recorded video, he told them, โ€œWe love you. Youโ€™re very special. Go home.โ€

On Thursday night, in a tweeted video message lasting less than three minutes, President Trump said that the โ€œdemonstratorsโ€ โ€” the same individuals whom he had personally addressed before the attack โ€” had โ€œdefiledโ€ the Capitol and called for their prosecution. Today, he resumed using his Twitter account to praise and encourage his base.

Today, Trump faces renewed calls for his impeachment or removal under the 25th Amendment. But the disinformation-fueled movement backing him is extremely unlikely to simply fade away โ€” and may in fact be further emboldened by the images of Trump and Confederate flags that were waved inside the Capitol Building.

โ€œI feel like itโ€™s a very clear end of the Trump administration,โ€ said Ryan, โ€œbut whatโ€™s terrifying is what it is the birth of.โ€

Far-right organizers have already reportedly posted calls to gather again on January 20, inauguration day. On Thursday, USA Today quoted from a โ€œwhite-supremacist Telegram channelโ€ that called for โ€œPro-Trump and other nationalist crowdsโ€ to gather in D.C. that day.

Main image: The pro-Trump mob outside of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021. Credit: Tyler MerblerCC BY 2.0

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Sharon Kelly is an attorney and investigative reporter based in Pennsylvania. She was previously a senior correspondent at The Capitol Forum and, prior to that, she reported for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Earth Island Journal, and a variety of other print and online publications.

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