Page:CTRL0000034607 - Deposition of Ali Alexander, (Dec. 9, 2021).pdf/49

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49

around you as you were walking to the Capitol?

A I'm not sure, but that's probably captured better on video than any verbal testimony I could give here today.

Q And you were saying that you were trying to get to the Capitol complex to deescalate. Can you help me understand that assertion with the fact that you were walking to the Capitol, chanting things such as "Stop the Steal"? So help me understand. Like you're getting to deescalate, yet you're leading the crowd in a chant of "Stop the Steal."

A Stop the Steal is a legally permitted, First Amendment chant in the same way that Black Lives Matter is, in the same way that so many other political issues are.

And I just want to say I kind of—I kind of resent, kind of offended by the, you know, the implication that you can't yell, "Stop the Steal." This was a movement that had 500 events, and all were peaceful. And yelling, "Stop the Steal," is about election integrity. And yelling, "Stop the Steal," even when we did the Jericho March with the Christians, before a broader, you know, theft in a spiritual sense. And you'll see her 12:56, I said we are deescalating. Before this, I talked about deescalating.

So my—so by chanting political phrases, we are gathering people to us. It is a tool of rhetoric and of speakers to use to get attention so that we can then move people where they belong.

Q So once you arrive at the Capitol complex, what did you observe?

A If you could be specific, it seems overbroad to me.

Q Once you get to the Capitol, what do you see?

A I see people.

Q What are those people doing?

A Some people are filming. Some people are walking. You know,