DC jail terminates Capitol rioter’s interview with Newsmax live on air
Edward Lang facing 13 charges after posting photo of himself at Capitol riot with caption ‘This is me’
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One of the accused rioters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January had an on-air interview abruptly terminated by the jail in which he is being held in Washington, DC.
Edward Jacob Lang was speaking by phone with presenters on Newsmax when the call suddenly ended with an automated message.
Mr Lang is accused of hitting police with a baseball bat during the violent insurrection at the Capitol Building by pro-Trump rioters looking to subvert the results of the November 2020 election.
Speaking with Newsmax host Heather Childers, Mr Lang complained about the “psychological warfare” he claimed to be experiencing during his pre-trial detention.
Ms Childers asked: “No doubt, you’re going to probably face some repercussions for even doing this interview with us today, are you a little worried about that?”
“Fear does not live in the hearts of patriots,” Mr Lang replied.
He continued: “And, you know, it’s time for the American people to band together and to stand behind the Constitution and to really support the January sixers because we were the frontline…”
An automated message then announced: “This call is being terminated by the facility.”
“Uh oh,” said Ms Childers after a short silence.
“Someone didn’t like that conversation,” she added.
Mr Lang faces 13 counts relating to the 6 January attack on the Capitol. A judge has ruled against any pretrial release.
To date, 727 people have been charged in the Capitol riot insurrection. In most cases, there has been s little dispute that they did breach the Capitol building, having provided evidence of that themselves in selfies and videos posted online.
Mr Lang posted a photograph of himself in a crowd of Trump supporters pushing their way through a Capitol building tunnel, beating police as they went.
He later went to the trouble of putting a finger emoji on the photo pointing to a fuzzy image of someone by the tunnel.
The caption he included read, “THIS IS ME”. The photo was included in the complaint charging him in mid-January.
With additional reporting from the Associated Press