Seated at a round table on a hot Texas afternoon, Peyton Reffitt and her family were trying to figure out how to forgive one another for all that had happened since Jan. 6, 2021.
The family had yet to fully resolve the perceived public betrayals and failed attempts at reconciliation in the more than two years since the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and Peyton, 18 years old at this latest gathering, wasn’t sure whether she was ready to confront her brother, Jackson, for everything that had happened since he secretly turned their father in to the FBI.
“Actions are actions. Dad went to the Capitol with a gun,” said Jackson, then 20 years old. “He walked up the Capitol steps with a gun on his hip.”
To understand how some families linked to the Capitol riot were trying to move on, Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff spoke to a number of individuals who turned in family members or whose relatives or friends did so. One was Jackson Reffitt, who connected Rosenzweig-Ziff to his family.
Initial conversations were over Zoom and, in Nicole’s case, at the federal courthouse in D.C. and at the D.C. jail. The family spoke openly about the pain and isolation they experienced, helping Rosenzweig-Ziff re-create several significant moments since the Capitol riot. He also used hundreds of pages of court testimony and Reffitt family text messages to help readers understand in detail what happened.
The Reffitts agreed to let Rosenzweig-Ziff and Post Reports producer Eliza Dennis be present for the family conversation aimed at reconciliation. Rosenzweig-Ziff and Dennis sometimes asked clarifying questions that day, but the vast majority of the conversation was among the Reffitts.
In addition to interviewing several experts on extremism and reconciliation to contextualize the family’s efforts, Rosenzweig-Ziff talked over the phone with Guy Reffitt multiple times to review with him the allegations against him and to hear his perspective.
On an upcoming episode of “Post Reports,” we will take you inside the Reffitt family’s attempt to reconcile. Listen in as they try to work through the challenges unique to this family’s story, which is complicated but recognizable to so many whose beliefs are different from those of their loved ones. Subscribe or follow Post Reports.
Peyton put down the journal filled with paragraphs of what she hoped to say today. She felt her breathing quicken. On Jan. 16, 2021, the FBI raided their house and arrested her father, Guy Reffitt, on charges of obstruction of justice and unlawful trespassing related to Jan. 6. Her brother was interviewed on CNN the next week, and it was then she found out that he had tipped off the authorities.
“Me, Sarah and Mom just felt a lack of empathy on our part from you afterwards,” Peyton said to Jackson as their mother and sister nodded.
“It’s not that I’m proud of it, or I’m so happy about it,” Jackson said.
After rioters stormed the Capitol, relatives and friends who disagreed with their actions faced a difficult choice: Should they turn their loved ones over to authorities? Could they continue to have relationships with people accused of trying to interfere with the peaceful transition of power? Divisions that had been growing since the election of Donald Trump to the presidency were torn even wider in living rooms and family group chats across the country.
Ever since, families have been having or avoiding conversations like the Reffitts were having on that May afternoon. What had once been political disagreements had become questions about loyalty, truth and patriotism.
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