A bronze turd “honors” the violent mob behind the Jan. 6 insurrection.
WASHINGTON ― A mysterious bronze-colored monument was installed Thursday morning across the street from the U.S. Capitol grounds “honoring” the people behind the Jan. 6 insurrection with a massive turd.
The monument depicts an emoji-style pile of poop sitting on a desk with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) nameplate next to it and a plaque underneath that reads:
This memorial honors the brave men and women who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 to loot, urinate and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election.
President Trump celebrates these heroes of January 6th as “unbelievable patriots” and “warriors.” This monument stands as testament to their daring sacrifice and lasting legacy.
A group called Civic Crafting is behind the installation, according to Ricardo, a security guard sitting in a car near the monument. He said he was hired to make sure nobody climbs on it. Ricardo said the installation went up at 8 a.m. and that Civic Crafting got a National Park Service permit to keep its turd monument up for seven days. He’ll be on watch the whole time.
“People have been walking by and then they realize that looks like poop, and they turn around and then they start taking pictures, but then when they go around, they see the plaque,” said Ricardo. “Then they get it. That’s what’s been going on.”
The installation looks like an authentic national monument, with its shiny bronze poop and plaque mounted on what looks like a cement block. But upon closer inspection, it is perhaps made out of foam or canvas. It is very light.
A family visiting from Waukesha, Wisconsin, was driving by when they pulled the car over to see what the hell was going on with this monument.
“She said it looks like poop on a desk,” Ryan, 40, said of his 9-year-old daughter, Vienna. “We were like, nah, it’s gotta be that snake that’s on the Don’t Tread On Me flag.”
The poop memorial is across the street from the U.S. Capitol near the National Mall.
Ryan and his family are staying with his brother Jeff, who lives in Herndon, Virginia.
“Whoever did this is a national hero,” Jeff said with a laugh.
Asked how this installation would be received in Waukesha, Ryan and his wife, Kristin, suddenly looked stressed out.
“We live in the reddest part of Wisconsin, so this would probably not be very popular where we live,” said Ryan. “I feel like an outsider in the reddest community in Wisconsin.”
But, he said, personally, “I feel pretty good about it.”
Asked for her reaction to the installation, Vienna observed “that people put poop on their desk.”
Everyone in this family requested to be identified by only their first names. They declined to be interviewed on camera by another reporter who was on the scene.
“This is what the politics of this country has done to me,” Jeff said. “That I don’t even feel safe giving my name on an opinion.”
The text of a memorial plaque highlights bad behavior by the mob on Jan. 6.
The installation is taking aim at the mob of Donald Trump’s supporters who, egged on by the then-president’s lies, broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Some people in this mob reportedly spread their feces throughout several hallways and offices in the U.S. Capitol.
A Trump supporter named Francis Connor claimed in an Instagram message with other rioters that he had defecated on Pelosi’s desk. It’s not clear whether he actually did.
“I was in the Capitol … And I pooped in pelosis desk … Come lock me up there’s nothing to live for if trump isn’t in office,” Connor wrote, according to a statement of offense filed in federal court. Connor pleaded guilty in April 2022 to disorderly conduct in the Capitol and illegally entering restricted grounds and was sentenced to 12 months of probation.
The Justice Department has convicted more than 1,000 people for their role in the insurrection and has charged Trump with crimes related to it. Trump will not go on trial for those crimes before the election, in part because of a Supreme Court ruling delaying the case.
Since that assault on the Capitol, Congress passed a law requiring a simple plaque be placed to honor the Capitol Police officers who defended the building that day. It was supposed to be placed on the Capitol’s West Front.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), a staunch supporter of Trump and the architect of the GOP’s effort to overturn the election, has yet to put it up.
Arthur Delaney contributed reporting.
