Florida leads the nation in number of residents facing charges for the Capitol riot with 76, per a new analysis by Axios. Pennsylvania and Texas are tied for second with 63. New York and California are next at 53 and 50 each, respectively. A June count showed Texas and Florida tied at 47.

That these are the top five states for arrests shouldn’t come as a major surprise – they are the five most populated states overall. Even though Trump lost California by 30% it was still by dint of its position as the most populated in the US also the one where he received the most votes, but it’s still somewhat of a surprise considering the distance. That Pennsylvania and New York are ranked so high makes sense, they’re at most within a half day’s drive of DC – which makes the overrepresentation of the other states stick out. Back in June we speculated this was a “sunk cost” mentality going into it – that a rioter who spent thousands of dollars on travel and accommodations to get to DC was more likely to be all in than someone coming from closer, and thus get themselves in serious shit for beating a cop. So there were probably more MAGA Pennsylvanians and New Yorkers than Texans, Floridians, and Californians overall in DC that day, they just hung back from storming the Capitol itself because they felt they had marginally less skin in the game.

That still doesn’t explain alone why Florida was the tip of the spear. Put Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina together and you have 5,288,127 Trump 2020 votes to Florida’s 5,668,731. Those three states – all closer to Washington DC at nearly every point within their borders – combine for 93% of Florida’s Trump votes yet still have just barely half as many Capitol rioters (41 total) facing charges. There is some serious shit going on in the Sunshine State – and it explains why, as reported in the Axios article, the US Capitol Police opened up a filed office in Tampa. Think about that: A police department created for the sole purpose of securing one single building complex in the United States felt compelled to open up a field office 815 miles south. They told Axios it was long planned before 2021, but why? What was the real purpose?