FLIMSY EXCUSES: How an Oath Keeper just tried to explain away his “storm the castle” texts
Thomas Caldwell, one of the men charged with seditious conspiracy in the January 6th attack, along with other Oath Keeper members, is trying out a novel defense: he says that when he talked of being ready for tear gas and preparing to “storm the castle,” he was actually only repeating lines from classic movies and cartoons.
Bugs Bunny never attempted to overthrow the government, but Caldwell claims that he was making a reference to Looney Toons and the classic mischievous character when he posted that he is “an instigator” and that he and his wife didn’t mind the tear gas as they stormed the Capitol.
In fact, he says, the phrase “us storming the castle” was supposed to be a mere reference to the 80’s classic movie, The Princess Bride.
The quotes from Caldwell’s messages don’t quite align with the ones from the media icons he cites, though.
More importantly, his claims that the lines come from movies and television don’t seem to negate their meaning in the context of Oath Keepers’ discussions, plans, and actions.
Caldwell’s defense has tried to portray him as an elderly, medically vulnerable, innocent veteran who is more into adult diapers than body armor, and who, when making comments like, “if we’d had guns I guarantee we would have killed 100 politicians,” was just being hyperbolic.
Law & Crime reports:
“When a prosecutor confronted him with an encrypted message talking about delivering ‘heavy weapons’ over the Potomac River by ‘ferry,’ the elderly extremist played off phrasing as a ‘bit of creative writing.’…He claimed that he believed he was talking privately to his wife when captured on tape shouting in a mob that he knew where then-Vice President Mike Pence lived…”
In previous testimony in his defense, his wife, Sharon Caldwell, claimed that he only wore a tactical vest for the convenience of its pockets, and that his only “body armor” was Depends.
According to WUSA9, she explained away another statement, in which he said, “Sharon and I stormed the Capitol,” as well as his statement about killing politicians, as “exaggeration.”
“That’s just Tom being Tom,” she said, adding that her husband tended to exaggerate a lot.
We’ll soon see whether the judge in the case finds the exaggerations of this Oath Keeper to be credible.
Steph Bazzle covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph.
