In Facebook Rant, Pennsylvania Lt Gov Candidate Teddy Daniels Admits He Was At The Capitol On January 6
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This week I published a piece for Rolling Stone outlining the turbulent personal and professional history of Teddy Daniels, a staunchly pro-Trump Republican who is running to be Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor.
Daniels responded to the piece on Thursday with a 22-minute Facebook broadcast during which, among other things, he admitted being present at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“I want my subpoena,” Daniels said in the video. “Like, where’s mine? I was there. Give me my subpoena.”
On January 6, 2021, Daniels posted a video that appeared to be shot from behind barricades at the Capitol as the building was stormed by supporters of former President Donald Trump. He did not respond to multiple questions from media outlets about that clip.
Daniels is running with the support of Doug Mastriano, a Republican state senator who, as first reported by The Uprising, was on the list of “important guests” invited to the main January 6 rally on the White House Ellipse where President Trump gave a speech encouraging the crowd to march on the Capitol. Mastriano, who has extensive ties to the efforts to overturn Trump’s loss and was subpoenaed by the select committee on Tuesday, has been a close second in early polling of Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial primary.
Daniels, a former police officer who has mocked the police officers injured that day, has called for the House select committee investigating the attack to be stopped and suggested he would change voting infrastructure in Pennsylvania to ensure future Trump victories.
The pair are part of a wave of Republican politicians who seem to have been present at the Capitol on January 6 in support of Trump’s efforts to contest the presidential election.
The Rolling Stone article detailed allegations related to domestic abuse and child support, along with issues that came up during Daniels’ law enforcement career.
Daniels’ ex-wife provided the court with two documents indicating that while he was a police officer in Bel Air, Maryland, Daniels was subject to an “internal affairs investigation” in 1999 and subsequently disciplined for “unbecoming conduct by providing deceptive information to an investigator” as well as “abuse” of “state record for personal reasons.” Local newspaper archives show that, in 2010, Daniels was suspended from another police department in Pennsylvania following unspecified “allegations.” According to the newspaper reports, Daniels ultimately reached a separation agreement with that department.
For the Rolling Stone piece, I provided Daniels with an opportunity to comment. He responded with a brief statement describing all of these various issues as “FALSE, and MALICIOUS ALLEGATIONS.”
In the Facebook video, Daniels attempted to dismiss the Rolling Stone article as a “smear piece.” Daniels suggested the story was solely “reporting about my divorce,” though he did not address the allegations that came up in the second case involving the woman he had a child with. Daniels also claimed “all these accusations and allegations happened in ‘99 through 2003,” though he said nothing to address the more recent workplace harassment allegation from 2013 or his suspension from the police department in 2010. Throughout the clip, Daniels repeatedly implied all of the allegations solely came from his ex-wife while ignoring the issues detailed by multiple courts, accusations from the other woman, and the newspaper archives describing his messy exit from the police force in 2010.
Much of Daniels’ complaint about the Rolling Stone story hinged on the fact I asked if he could provide documentation of a claim on his campaign website that he was named “Law Enforcement Officer of the Year in 2002.” Nothing on the site explains which entity gave him this accolade. In the Facebook video, Daniels waved around a certificate that appeared to say he was dubbed “law enforcement officer of 2002” by an American Legion post in Harford County, Maryland.
“Apparently, according to them, I got in trouble numerous times in my law enforcement career and this happened in ‘99 and 2002,” Daniels said. “Man, if I was such a bad cop how in God’s name did I receive Officer of the Year in 2002?”
Contrary to Daniels’ claim, none of the issues related to his police career that were described in the article took place in 2002.
On Thursday evening, I sent Daniels an email detailing the various problems with his effort to rebut the Rolling Stone piece and asking if he had any further comment. Daniels did not respond and instead posted another approximately 20-minute long video on his Facebook page. In his second broadcast, Daniels did not address any of the specific issues with his efforts to dispute the Rolling Stone piece. Rather than discussing any of the relevant facts, Daniels made at least seven variations of jokes that I was “obsessed” and “in love with” him.
“I’m such a bad guy though. I’m a super bad guy. … Maybe you’re attracted to bad boys,” Daniels said. “I know you’ve got a crush on me. … So, when you lay your head on the pillow tonight, dream happy dreams about Teddy Daniels.”
Lost his job at the police department…a bully to women..a loudmouth too and A dumb Trumper…fits right in with current Republican Party, who don’t hv ann9unce of integrity, honesty or morality.
What a pathetic man...it reminds me of the way Trump used to talk about his mythical 'Man of the Year' award from Tme Magazine. I do wonder, though, whether police departments radicalize people of whether people prone to violence join police departments. America is filled with broken institutions.