TheBlaze.com reported that after being investigated for three years, Baker was charged with: (1) Knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; (2) Disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted build or grounds; (3) Disorderly conduct in a capitol building, and (4) Parading, demonstrating or picketing in a capitol building.
Baker told Blaze News that he first learned of the charges on Friday. Baker's legal representative told him the message was clear. "You know why. You've been poking them in the eye for three years," attorney William Shipley said.
Baker turned himself into authorities in Dallas, Texas, who then placed shackles on his wrists and ankles. (Related article: Steve Baker's attorney to federal prosecutors: 'Game on')
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Iowa-based talk-show host Steve Deace, who also appears on Blaze Media, says it's clear Baker's arrest is a political targeting by the Biden administration.
"If you read their criminal complaint against him, it's four misdemeanor complaints after putting him through three years of investigations and threats, and none of them are about his behavior. If you read the complaint, it doesn't say And on this day and date, Steve Baker illegally entered these premises, and that's why we're charging him with blank. It's all his commentary, politically before and after the event; it has nothing to do with his behavior the day of the event," Deace said on American Family Radio Monday.
Deace told show host Jenna Ellis that Blaze has and will soon release surveillance video that completely exonerates Baker's behavior at the capitol on Jan. 6. "This is about his commentary before, but especially after," Deace added.
Fair and balanced Baker
Deace points out Baker has presented balanced reporting of a highly politicized incident that reverberates still in this election cycle three years later as former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, stands on an immunity defense for allegations of his role in the events of that day.
"There are some people out there who are kind of creating this racket that the entirety of Jan. 6th was a false flag, and everybody there was innocent. That's not what Steve has actually done. Steve has gone through and has been on the point with release of the footage and going through it. He has pointed out on my show, in fact, specific instances of people who rioted and should have been charged, whose behavior was clearly criminal."
Deace called Baker a truth-seeker. "That's what makes him dangerous" to the Left, he added.
"He certainly believes the narrative of what we were sold on Jan. 6 is overblown and has not matched the rhetoric of insurrection. He has been seeking the truth through this, not just having his own clownish counter-partisan narrative. That's why he's been uniquely targeted here while some other people who have been on the cutting edge of covering the story have not … because they're just framing one narrative versus another. They're not a danger to the regime. The truth is," Deace said.
Deace said the arrest shows the likely reelection strategy of Joe Biden's team in the months to come.
"If they can't get a rebounding economy here between now and Election Day, if they can't make people optimistic about the direction of the country again between now and Election Day, it's very clear that their backup plan has always been lawfare … just to relitigate the end of the Trump administration, particularly Jan. 6," Deace said.
The Democrats' play to keep the White House
Deace said Baker's arrest was delayed because the administration was waiting to see what further evidence undermining their Jan. 6 claims might be presented by conservative news outlets. These outlets need to make it their strategy to continue to pursue truth, Deace argued, because the Democrats' plan to keep Trump and Jan. 6 in the news cycle has a solid following – and Biden's reelection campaign, he said, grows stronger when it can play to those groups.
"They want to make the entire election not a referendum on their lack of accomplishments and the detriment that they've been to the country as a whole, [but] on Trump and his behavior and the behavior of his base, who [they say] are a danger to democracy," he stated.
"The reality is, as we learned in 2022 when they pulled this, there is a substantial audience of suburbanites who either are appalled or scared to death of this stuff. They're somewhere between embarrassed, grossed out and scared.
"This works. We cannot feed into that narrative by abandoning the truth. We will undermine that narrative actually by pursuing the truth …. That's what Baker has done – and that's why they want to throw him in jail," Deace concluded.
