Have you heard this bizarre conspiracy theory about January 6th?

The January 6th Capitol Attack has generated a lot of conspiracy theories around what happened that day and why, but few are as bizarre as the one proposed by a Republican Member of Congress in November 2023.

On November 15th, 2023, the American public was introduced to what might just have been the weirdest and wildest conspiracy theories regarding the January 6th Capitol Attack in 2021 by House Republican Clay Higgins. 

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Higgins is the representative for Louisiana’s 13th Congressional District and has gotten into all kinds of trouble with the media and voters over the years for his bombastic rhetoric and weird social media use. 

Despite many of the things he's done to earn the public's disdain, Higgins' claims about the January 6th Capitol Attack in November 2023 might have taken the cake for the most bizarre comments the Louisiana congressman has ever made. 

During a Homeland Security Committee hearing in which FBI Director Christopher Wray was testifying, Higgins revived the long-dead conspiracy theory that the FBI was behind January 6th. 

However, the Republican congressman added a 'fun' twist to the contentious idea that the government was behind the incident. This was not a joke, either. Higgins had giant images blown up to share with fellow members of the committee. 

Higgins started his questioning of Wray by bringing up the ‘theory’ that the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th was started by FBI agents dressed as Donald Trump supporters according to a New Republic report of the interaction. 

Wray rejected the theory, saying: “If you are asking whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6th was part of some operation orchestrated by operatives and or sources, the answer is emphatically not… no.”

Higgins jumped in at the end of Wray’s comment asking if he was saying no. When Wray confirmed he was saying no, Higgins smugly straightened up his back and dove into what has been the silliest January 6th conspiracy theory both before and since Higgins revealed a new sinister truth from that terrible day. 

“Do you know what a ‘ghost vehicle’ is, Director? You’re director of the FBI, you certainly should. You know what a ‘ghost bus’ is?” the Louisiana Republican asked Wray as the FBI director said back the term in a questioning manner. 

Photo Credit: Screenshot from YouTube @CongressmanClayHiggins

When the FBI Director said that he didn’t know what a ghost vehicle was, Higgins gave him a full explanation and stated that they were vehicles used for “secret purposes," and often painted over as he displayed an image of a bus from January 6th. 

Higgins then reviewed the image of two buses he said claimed the first to arrive at Union Station on January 6th. The Louisiana Republican noted that the buses were a lot more worrying than the image made them out to be according to Vice News. 

Photo Credit: Screenshot from YouTube @CongressmanClayHiggins

“These buses are nefarious in nature and were filled with FBI informants dressed as Trump supporters, deployed onto our Capitol on January 6th,” Higgins claimed without providing any real evidence to back up his accusation. 

Photo Credit: Screenshot from YouTube @CongressmanClayHiggins

Higgins described the seemingly boring image he displayed in the hearing as “just the tip of the iceberg” of the evidence that he had apparently collected in the matter, adding: “Your day is coming, Mr. Wray” before finishing his comments. 

The whole scene was an awkward display but truly revealed the quality of the country’s representatives. Unfortunately, Higgins’ ‘ghost buses’ were just another element of a very long-running theory to offload blame for January 6th on the FBI. 

About one year after January 6th, the Associated Press reviewed a few of the most worrying conspiracy theories surrounding the Capitol attack and noted that the idea that the rioters weren’t Trump supporters was a long-running one. 

In the immediate aftermath of January 6th, conservative news media personalities like Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson muddied the waters of the incident by spreading a version of the events that hasn’t aligned with the reality of the attack. 

Carlson in particular played a major role in spreading the theory that the Capitol riot was orchestrated by the FBI, noting that the former Fox News host once cited evidence that unindicted co-conspirators in some January 6th indictments were really FBI informants. 

Unfortunately, such conspiracy theories about what happened on January 6th are likely to continue circulating in the American public consciousness as long as representatives like Clay Higgins keep giving them a platform. 

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However, no further proof of these alleged 'ghost busses' was ever provided and the matter seems to have been quickly forgotten. Still, the incident revealed just how flawed the American political system has become since the rise of Donald Trump and his takeover of the Republican Party as its defacto 'leader'.