A few questions for a Capitol invader

I read an interview in The Gazette with Leo Kelly of Cedar Rapids, one of the many who illegally entered the U.S. Capitol a week ago in an attempt to overturn the results of our democratic election.

He claims he 'didn't intend to destroy anything.” He obviously wasn't referring to our American democratic principles. If he had encountered some members of Congress (who were fleeing the legislative chambers out of fear for their safety), he says he would have asked them, 'What do you know about what's going on … what do you believe about all of what's going on in politics and everything?”

How would any of us have answered that question? What is going on? Is he referring to a president who has refused to accept the repeatedly verified fact of his electoral defeat? Is he referring to accusations of electoral fraud that have never been supported by actual evidence? That are instead based on such evidence as the fact that many voters happened to have the same name as someone who has passed away? That his campaign crowds were larger than his opponent's? That Las Vegas oddsmakers had favored him to win? Is he referring to the fact that the president of the United States had just incited an angry crowd to ignore the rule of law and invade the U.S. Capitol?

I too wonder what's going on.

David Duer

Iowa City