Aside from all the mind-blowing revelations in this week's blockbuster January 6 hearing, the thing that stuck with many viewers was one of the star witnesses' attire.
Jason Van Tatenhove, a former spokesman for far-right extremist group Oath Keepers, provided many stunning details during his testimony, but his t-shirt featuring the punk band The Descendents nearly upstaged him.
After all, there are few things more incongruous than an explicitly leftist punk rock band and white nationalist fascism.
And following the uproar, the band is now speaking out about Van Tatenhove's taste in t-shirts to make it absolutely clear that the band and the Oath Keepers have nothing in common.
See their tweet about it below.
The band tweeted:
"We completely disavow groups like the Oath Keepers and in no way condone their hateful ideology."
The Oath Keepers, a far-right anti-government group that bills itself as the "Guardians of the Republic," is one of the handful of far-right groups responsible for part of the planning of the January 6 coup attempt at the Capitol.
The group is comprised mainly of present and former law enforcement officers and retired military members and has been involved in a number of armed standoffs with the government over the years.
They were also among the groups who marched in the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
During his testimony, Van Tatenhove stated he left the group before the January 6 insurrection because he witnessed the group lurching “further and further right into the alt-right world, into white nationalists and even straight-up racists."
Van Tatenhove also said he was particularly alarmed by the group's anti-semitism, Holocaust denial and descent into increasingly unhinged conspiracy theories about the government and Democrats.
While telling the House Committee about these details, Van Tatenhove wore a Descendents t-shirt featuring an image of Milo, the band's mascot modeled after lead singer Milo Aukerman.
Though punk and heavy metal have an uncomfortable history of being infiltrated by far-right groups, few bands fit the bill less than The Descendents, who have addressed everything from slavery and the KKK to the McCarthy hearings in its music.
Given Van Tatenhove disavowal of the Oath Keepers and the chilling warnings he provided about their goals, it seems reasonable to assume his politics now at least somewhat overlap with that of The Descendents.
But the strangeness of the situation left people on Twitter shocked regardless.
We truly live in the strangest timeline.
@WhiteHouse/X
