On January 6th of 2021, thousands of insurrectionists, including gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley, descended on the U.S. Capitol in a horrific display killing five and injuring 140 officers in Washington DC.
Despite the violence, out-of-touch millionaire and Toyota salesman Kevin Rinke did what has become standard for this crowded and extreme primary field. When explicitly asked during a September taping of the Guy Gordon Show if he was planning to “understate or diminish what happened on January 6th…to court the former president’s endorsement,” Rinke wasted no time to do exactly that.
He refused to qualify the violent attempt to overturn the 2020 election as an insurrection, referring to it as a “Trump rally” and “political argument” instead. Excerpt below:
- “In regards to the events in Washington, DC at the Trump rally, I believe that anybody that attacked Capitol Police or police officers, anybody that broke the law that day, should face the consequences of their actions. But, I would also say Guy, that’s the same way I feel about the people in Seattle that were breaking the law and throwing fire bombs and we can’t have a political argument about its right for some but not right for others?”
Since then, Rinke has made no new comments about the insurrection.
MDP spokesperson Rodericka Applewhaite issued the following statement:
“In a field of extremists, out-of-touch millionaire Kevin Rinke is the latest to ignore just how violent and damaging the January 6th insurrection was to our democracy. ‘Rallies’ and ‘political arguments’ don’t incite people to storm the Capitol killing and injuring others in order to overturn an election. Michiganders deserve a governor who will fight to protect the fair elections that are fundamental to our democracy and who won’t excuse and downplay violence against law enforcement.”
