It seems like only yesterday I was writing about the latest hoax the Left attempted to inject into the political conversation — the claim that Brian Cole Jr., the suspect arrested Thursday in the January 6 pipe-bombing case, was a Trump supporter who questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Oh … wait.
By Thursday evening, the narrative was already being test-marketed. By Friday morning, nearly every legacy media outlet had snapped to attention and begun parroting it in perfect, predictable unison. And all of these reports were based on “anonymous sources.”
There were several obvious reasons this storyline never passed the smell test. To begin with, FBI records show that Cole began purchasing components for his bomb-making materials in May 2019 — long before the 2020 election and any dispute over its outcome.
Second, Cole’s family of origin — with whom he remains unusually close — leans firmly to the left. As The Daily Wire reported, his father, Brian Cole Sr., whose bail-bond business Cole Jr. works for, hired far-Left attorney Ben Crump to represent him in a lawsuit attacking the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Crump, of course, is the same progressive activist-lawyer who represented the families of Trayvon Martin and George Floyd.
The Daily Wire also noted that just weeks before Cole Jr. allegedly planted pipe bombs outside the DNC and RNC headquarters on January 5, 2021, a court had ruled against the family’s company — hardly a detail that fits the media’s preferred narrative.
Lastly, if Cole had truly been a MAGA loyalist, the Biden Justice Department would almost certainly have vaulted this case to the top of its priority list, just as it did with its relentless pursuit of January 6 defendants.
It’s also worth noting that Cole allegedly planted bombs outside both the DNC and RNC headquarters. He did not demonstrate a preference for one party over the other. Perhaps he simply intended to sow additional chaos in Washington, D.C., on an already politically volatile day.
In any case, within 24 hours of the first media references to this story, the Daily Mail’s Friday interview with the suspect’s grandmother, Loretta, effectively knocked the air out of the manufactured drama.
[Note: The Mail does not provide Loretta’s surname; however, the article states that she is the mother of Cole Sr. She mentions in the interview that she had last seen Cole Jr. at “the office” on Wednesday, which implies that she, too, works at the Virginia location of Cole Sr.’s bail-bond business.]
According to the article, Cole “keeps to himself” and lives in his mother’s basement in Woodbridge, Virginia. Recently, “he’s been grieving the loss of his beloved pet chihuahua.”
Loretta told the Mail that Cole is “an autistic recluse and ‘computer nerd’ who has no party affiliation … and never votes.”
He’s not politically affiliated with anything. He has no social media contacts. He’s never online going back and forth with politics or anything like that. He says he don’t like either party.He’s borderline autistic. He’s slow. He may be 30, but he’s got the mind of a 16-year-old. That’s why we’re thinking – What the hell? What’s going on?We were told that the main thing he’s very upset about is that he disappointed us, that he got locked up. We told him we’re out here, we’re going to make sure [every]thing’s taken care of.We’re terrified. They say they’ve got all this evidence. Whatever happened, we’ve still got to fight it. We have to figure out what to do.
Loretta said she “doesn’t believe the charges.” She explained:
This young man is very calm and quiet. He just stays to himself. Nobody bothers him because he doesn’t bother anybody.He doesn’t have a girlfriend. That’s how slow he is. He’s just off in a little world on his own. He stays downstairs and he used to be with his dog all the time.That’s why everything is so messed up with us because he’s a good kid. If you knew him, you would say that he couldn’t have done it.And if he did, it was just him trying to prove a point or whatever. He probably doesn’t even know the magnitude of what he’s done, if he did it.He’s a data entry clerk in the office and answers the phones. He’s right in the reception area up front. We have a business, so we have to put him to work. And he understands that. He’s good with data entry.All I can tell you is I love my grandson. He’s not a bad kid and he’s not affiliated with any gangs or anything like that. He’s not a political anarchist, or whatever they’re calling him. People could pull unnamed sources out of the sky. I don’t believe that. I don’t know.
While her remarks do not definitively refute the media’s claims that Cole was or is a Trump supporter — and, of course, she cannot speak to what websites he visits while on the computer in his mother’s basement — it stands to reason that Loretta, who likely interacts with Cole regularly at work, would have at least some sense of it if that were the case.
He has told her he doesn’t like either party, which may be the simplest explanation for why he allegedly planted explosives outside both headquarters.
At any rate, I can’t recall a Democratic narrative unraveling quite this quickly. It makes you wonder if, in their desperation to “get Trump,” they’re grabbing at anything that comes along instead of sticking to stories that might actually hold up under scrutiny.
When will Americans grasp that the Democratic Party has evolved into an organized group of thugs masquerading as a political party?
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY