Detroit Metro Times: “Michigan state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey suggested the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was a ‘hoax’ perpetuated by opponents of former President Donald Trump. The state Senate’s top Republican made the bizarre and unfounded claim in a video-recorded meeting at a diner last week with leaders of the Hillsdale County Republican Party, who were discussing censuring him for not taking a bold enough stand against Democrats. ‘That wasn’t Trump’s people. That’s been a hoax from day one. That was all prearranged,’ Shirkey, a Clarklake Republican, said of the riot. ‘It was arranged by somebody who was funding it. … It was all staged.'”

“There’s no evidence that anyone but Trump supporters were behind the riot. More than 200 people have been charged with storming the Capitol, and several of them have been accused of orchestrating the insurrection. The alleged masterminds are Trump supporters, the FBI and Justice Department have said, and Trump himself told the rally at a crowd he was holding earlier that day to march on the Capitol. According to leaked cell phone location data, about 40 percent of the phones tracked near the rally stage on the National Mall during Trump’s rally speeches were also found in and around the Capitol during the siege. Shirkey insinuated that even Sen. Mitch McConnell ‘was part of’ a staged insurrection. ‘I think they wanted to have a mess,’ Shirkey said. ‘They would have had to recruit this other group of people.’ Shirkey also suggested a darker conspiracy but offered no evidence. ‘I think there are people above elected officials,’ Shirkey said. ‘There are puppeteers.'”