A man who was pictured sitting at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk as rioters in support of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol building on Wednesday recently said he is a white nationalist who’s prepared for a violent death.
The man, who identified himself as Richard Barnett from Gravette, Arkansas, in a New York Times interview, had posted about white nationalism on a Facebook page he maintained under the pseudonym “George Reincarnated Patton” after the World War II general, according to the Washington Post.
“Now we have a term that fits me and many others and they try to turn it bad. I am white. There is no denying that. I am a nationalist. I put my nation first. So that makes me a white nationalist,” he said on Saturday, adding: “F—— A we are nationalists. You aren’t? Then get the f— out of our nation.”
In a separate post from December, Barnett said he “came into this world kicking and screaming, covered in someone else’s blood” and that he was “not afraid to go out the same way,” The Post reported.
Barnett’s Facebook has since been locked or removed, but Washington Post reporter Jon Swaine posted screenshots on Twitter:
Barnett, who goes by “Bigo,” spoke to New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg outside the Capitol after he had visited Pelosi’s desk.
The 60-year-old told Rosenberg that he had taken a personalized envelope that belonged to Pelosi, and had “left a quarter on her desk.”
“I didn’t steal it. I bled on it because they were macing me and I couldn’t f—ing see,” Barnett said, according to video posted to Twitter by Rosenberg. “So I figure, ‘Well, I’m in her office, I got blood in her office, I’ll put a quarter on her desk even though she ain’t f—ing worth it.'”
He also said he wrote her a “nasty note” – photos show a note on Pelosi’s desk that said “WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN”.
Barnett was quickly recognized by publications in Arizona, including the Eagle-Observer, which reported that he raised more than $1,000 for a “Save our Children” anti-trafficking campaign that had been propagated by QAnon, a conspiracy organization that shares misinformation about child sex trafficking.
Barnett also previously attended a “Stop the Steal” rally in support of Trump in Arkansas in November, and told local news station KNWA that he believed voter fraud cost Trump the presidential election.
He told KNWA on Wednesday that he hadn’t been arrested at Wednesday’s riot, but was escorted out of the Capitol after being tear gassed.
He told the publication that he and his family had received multiple threats.
Law enforcement retook the Capitol Wednesday night, and Congress completed its certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Trump.
*story by Business Insider