https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1063722023 CAPITOL RIOT Cliven Bundy praises Trump mob, bemoans 'retreat' Jennifer Yachnin, E&E News reporter Published: Thursday, January 7, 2021 Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy took to Facebook to share his thoughts on the mob takeover of the U.S. Capitol. Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons This story was updated at 4:09 p.m. EST. Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is praising rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol building yesterday — and briefly delayed a joint session of Congress to certify President-elect Joe Biden's November victory — but lamented the pro-Trump mob did not occupy the facility overnight. Bundy, who rose to national prominence when his own long-running feud with the Bureau of Land Management escalated to an armed standoff with federal agents in the Nevada desert in 2014, commented on the incident on social media but does not appear to have attended or participated. In a post to Facebook, Bundy compared yesterday's chaos to his own showdown with federal agents near his Bunkerville, Nev., ranch. "You can't clean the swamp by standing off at a distance and smelling it," Bundy wrote. "At Bundy Ranch we had a job to do, go get it done, and We the People went forward and finished the job." Although Bundy grazes his cattle on public lands, the rancher has refused to pay federal grazing fees since 1994, and lost a court battle with the government in 1998 that incurred trespass fees for his continued defiance. When BLM attempted to seize Bundy's cattle for auction to settle those outstanding fees and fines, the rancher rallied armed supporters to Nevada with a series of viral videos and the federal government abandoned its efforts. Although Bundy was arrested in 2016 — en route to support two of his sons at an occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, as a protest against the incarceration of two other ranchers — and spent two years in federal prison awaiting trial, he was not convicted in the incident. Instead, U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada Chief Judge Gloria Navarro declared a mistrial in 2018 after finding government attorneys withheld key information from defendants. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling last year and rejected the government's request for a new trial (Greenwire, Aug. 6, 2020). In his comments on yesterday's insurrection at the Capitol, Bundy praised President Trump for inspiring his supporters to temporarily overwhelm Congress. "Today President Trump had hundreds of thousands of people and he pointed the way — pointed towards congress and nodded his head go get the job done," Bundy wrote. "We the People did clear the chambers of Congress and 100,000 should have spent the night in the halls and 100,000 should have protected them." He concluded: "Trump blew his trump of retreat and the sun goes down." According to the Associated Press, the crowd numbered in the thousands — not as large as Bundy's own estimate — and the incident resulted in 52 arrests as of last night. That number includes 26 arrests on Capitol grounds. In addition, four people died during the incident, including a woman who was shot and killed by police inside the Capitol. Fourteen police officers were injured during the protests, the AP reported. Idaho resident Ammon Bundy, one of Bundy's sons and a co-defendant in the Nevada incident, likewise urged participants to attend yesterday's "Save America" rally — where Trump once rallied supporters to question his defeat in the November election — but does not appear to have participated himself. Ammon Bundy did not respond to requests for comment about yesterday's riots. "I needed to voice my opinion and support what a great opportunity it is to stand for a constitutional republic and for us as independent free people," he said in a video posted by the group People's Rights last month. The anti-federal government organization, which Ammon Bundy founded earlier this year, grew out of protests against efforts to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, including stay-at- home orders and business closures (Greenwire, Nov. 25, 2020). During meetings and other public events, Ammon Bundy often references his previous battles with the federal government. In addition to the Nevada mistrial, the federal government failed to convict Bundy and six other co-defendants including his brother Ryan Bundy in the occupation of the Malheur refuge (Greenwire, Oct. 28, 2016). Center for Western Priorities Executive Director Jennifer Rokala today compared the attack on Congress to the Malheur incident, calling the latter a "dress rehearsal for what we saw at the Capitol." "The extremist ideologies and tactics that led to the violent occupation of public lands in Oregon are the same ideologies that President Trump has stoked among his supporters," Rokala said. She encouraged the Biden administration to more aggressively address such protests when it assumes control of the government later this month. "After Trump leaves office, the threats to our public lands will be greater than ever. Law enforcement must stop appeasing the criminals who take over America's public land, whether in Washington or the West, and start sending them to prison," she said. But Neil Wampler, who was tried and acquitted alongside Ammon and Ryan Bundy for his role in the Malheur occupation, dismissed such comparisons. "We would not have allowed ourselves to be denied entry into the Capitol building, but we definitely would have been peaceful and orderly," Wampler told E&E News via telephone from his California home. When asked whether his and others actions in Oregon could have inspired yesterday's incident at the Capitol building, Wampler responded simply: "No." "I reject absolutely the yahoos that went in there and tried to raise hell," Wampler said, criticizing those who damaged the building and grounds as "Rambo types." Wampler asserted that several would-be occupiers of the Malheur refuge were asked or told to leave for aggressive behavior. "We're just not having somebody who wants to riot and kill people and start fires," Wampler explained, adding that such behavior might also suggest a person is a "a government agent provocateur." The FBI acknowledged it had nine informants at the Oregon refuge (Greenwire, Feb. 23, 2017). "We're not having either one of those," Wampler added. Wampler, who has said the Malheur occupiers were inspired by the 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island by Native Americans that began in 1969, added that the seizure of the wildlife refuge was a last resort to oppose what he sees as government overreach involving public lands (Greenwire, Nov. 14, 2017). "It's not like we have a knee-jerk reaction to go occupy federal property," he said. .