On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Jaron Pensinger, a 21-year-old student at Georgetown University, joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss his time at President Donald Trump’s D.C. rally on Jan. 6 and how his role as a peaceful protester concerned about election integrity was misconstrued by his peers and the press.
“I just wanted to, as protests are meant to do, send a peaceful message to our government to show that, you know, we want some sort of change and we want our government back for the people,” Pensinger said.
The thought of attacking the Capitol, Pensinger said, never crossed his mind.
“I was going down to hear Donald Trump speak and then peacefully march and then go home,” Pensinger said. “I was not there because I’m a white supremacist. I was not there because I support violence. I felt that there were some concerns about election integrity in this past election, you know, with Donald Trump and Joe Biden, and I feel as though a lot of the election concerns were, in a sense, swept under the rug by Democrats.”
Despite the threats and calls for his university to take disciplinary action against him, Pensinger hopes the chaotic events on Jan. 6 will spur journalists and others to hear out the concerns of the peaceful protesters who attended the rally.
“All it takes is a conversation,” Pensinger said. “So many of these people wouldn’t even have a conversation with me and were rushing to judgment about me, and all it takes is a conversation.”
Read more here about why Pensinger and thousands of others traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to protest the presidential election.
