Former West Virginia legislator and Jan 6th insurrectionist Derrick Evans told CBS News he will be running for federal office in 2024. And Evans hinted that he will probably run to take on our favorite DINO Joe Manchin. I highlight this bit of news because 1) this guy has pled guilty and is going to prison for three months and 2) Evans has been elected to office before in WV and plans to be another insurrectionist trying for higher elected office.
If I am not mistaken, PA has an insurrectionist candidate running for governor along with another insurrectionist doing the same in MI.
Anyway, here are some of what you might need to know about Evans:
Evans, the highest-ranking government official to charged so far in a Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach criminal case, resigned his seat in the state legislature shortly after his arrest in January 2021. But he said his post-prison plans include a possible run for Congress — when Sen. Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, could be seeking reelection. He believes his arrest might actually galvanize political support in a state that overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump in the 2020 election…
He pleaded guilty to a count of civil disorder in March and was sentenced in June to three months in prison. He said he expects to be ordered to report to prison in the coming days, and is hoping to be incarcerated close to his home along the West Virginia-Kentucky border.
Evans acknowledged wearing a helmet and live streaming his movements at the Capitol on Jan. 6. And he says many of his former constituents and his community in Prichard, W.Va., have had few, if any criticisms, of his actions at the Capitol…
The Justice Department sought prison time for Evans, arguing he was part of a crowd that pushed against the police line during the riot.
"Evans also made clear his enthusiasm for what was happening — he cheered each advancement of 'patriots' against police on all sides of the Capitol," prosecutors said in a court filing. "He urged rioters around him to 'take' the Capitol and he told them that the certification of the electoral college vote was paused 'because of protestors' and that 'patriots' made it onto the Senate floor. Evans whooped and hollered throughout his livestream, telling his followers, 'Guys, oh my gosh, I can't even explain what is happening right now, how amazing this is to see in person. I am in awe. The revolution has started. The revolution has started!'"
Now, Evans regrets and said it was stupid of him to go into the Capitol Building. But he has no regrets about being at the Jan 6th insurrection outside of the Capitol Building. According to Evans, it’s OK to be a bystander at an insurrection and cheer the other violent bastards on, but it’s bad if you actually participate in the violence.
We have heard this story before from others who got busted, but I want to let that sink in for a moment. Basically, you can be present at a murder and cheer the murderer on, but don’t participate in the murder. Otherwise, you are all good.
And Evans puts on the contrition act when he pled guilty, but he then goes out and says the 2020 Elections was “stolen.” Prosecutors wanted to add time on to his sentence for this, but the judge let that slide. Seems that the judge was tore up about giving poor Mr. Evans any time at all, but His Honor felt that Mr. Evans should do some time for his actions in the insurrection.
And Evans admits that his actions are being applauded by his former constituents. And he freely admits that his actions on Jan 6th are going to help burnish his resume for a run for higher office in WV. And sadly, I think Evans is correct.
Plenty of Republican crooks in the past have been rewarded with gigs that earn them some decent money, and some like Oliver North have been treated as heroes by conservative lunatics. Now, we are seeing more of these same criminals running for statewide or federal offices.
Why I think Evans is interesting is that he probably will run in the Republican primary in WV to take on Senator Joe Manchin. In the past, being a criminal would disqualify a man running for any political office because voters were like, “Why do I want to vote for a criminal?” But nowadays, anything goes in Republican circles.
But Evans is power hungry, and he is not the only ambitious Republican looking at Joe Manchin’s seat with envious eyes. WV is now a Republican state, and there are too many Republican politicians seeking too few open seats. And if Manchin thought that being a prick to President Biden and the rest of the Democratic Party would save him from the worst in the Republican Party, he is going to have another think coming.
The same forces unleashed by Trumpism are bound to consume WV. It is inevitable. Trump and Trumpism are alive and well in WV.
