After retiring from sideline reporting for NBC Sports in 2022, Michele Tafoya began her podcast with Salem Network, The Michele Tafoya Podcast. Given the podcast’s focus on political issues and interviews with political candidates and officials, it makes sense that Tafoya entered the political scene herself a few years later.
Now running as the GOP candidate for US Senate in Minnesota, Tafoya–like her opponents–are being heavily scrutinized for their public comments on politics, past or present. And with a four-year backlog of podcast episodes, it’s easy to get a good idea of what Tafoya appears to believe. Recent reporting from Punchbowl News reveals that seems to include a pattern of support for individuals who participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol was the result of “a violent and heavily armed mob of supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump,” as described by American Oversight, the nonpartisan government watchdog nonprofit.This happened while Congress was meeting to certify the results that Democrat Joe Biden had won the 2020 presidential election instead of Trump. Five people were killed, including a Capitol Police officer, due to the mob’s insurrection.
Tafoya has made a myriad of comments in favor of the rioters involved on her various podcasts , even interviewing Jan. 6 rioters. Here are a few examples, as first reported by Punchbowl:
Platforming J6ers
In September 2022, Tafoya interviewed Brandon Straka, a Jan. 6 rioter, on her podcast Sideline Sanity. Straka defines himself as a former “lifelong Democrat” who voted for Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton, before becoming a Republican. He’s also the founder of Walk Away, a campaign supporting others who leave the Democratic Party.
In the podcast, Tafoya asked Straka to tell viewers how they can support him as he fought felony charges for obstructing Congress. Straka pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge for encouraging other rioters, in a plea deal.
In October 2024, Tafoya interviewed Siaka Massaquoi, another Jan. 6 rioter, on The Michele Tafoya Podcast. Massaquoi is an actor who’s appeared in TV shows NCIS: Los Angeles and Lethal Weapon. He also was arrested on Jan. 6 on misdemeanor charges for demonstrating in a Capitol building and trespassing. In this edition, Tafoya spoke to Massaquoi about his new work in a political film called Vindicating Trump, calling Massaquoi her “J6 brother” at the start of the conversation.
Then in February 2025, Tafoya interviewed him again on the same podcast. She showed Massaquoi’s videos from Jan. 6 at the beginning of the podcast, before interviewing him about the pardon he received from Trump. Tafoya called Massaquoi one of the “good people that got caught up in the shuffle” of the insurrection.
In March 2025, Tafoya interviewed another actor who participated in the events of Jan. 6, on The Michele Tafoya Podcast. Jay Johnston, who’s known for his work on Mr. Show with Bob and David and Bob’s Burgers, faced felony charges for taking part in the storming of the Capitol. He pleaded guilty to interfering with law enforcement officers and spent a year in prison.
Tafoya explained that Johnston’s career has been ruined by the “J6er” label, and that it’s important for people to hear his story so they might “tap into some level of forgiveness for so many of these people who were so mistreated by our justice system.” In this episode, she continued these remarks, saying people prosecuted for Jan. 6 “really did nothing wrong” and were targeted for “political reasons.”
‘It was not 9/11’
In June 2024 on The Michele Tafoya Podcast, Tafoya continued to downplay just how serious the Jan. 6 riot and its aftermath is. She interviewed actor Nick Searcy, who was at the Jan. 6 insurrection, but left without being arrested or charged. Searcy was the actor who helped create the political documentary about Jan. 6, Capitol Punishment.
In the beginning of her interview with Searcy, Tafoya said, “It seems to me that the people who believe January 6th was an insurrection and the biggest crime we’ve ever seen in America seem a little extreme to me.”
On another edition of The Michele Tafoya Podcast in July 2024, Tafoya further downplayed the Jan. 6 US Capitol attack. She started out saying she used to think that Jan. 6 was “a bunch of crazy people doing stupid things,” but that her mindset had changed. Tafoya talked about footage from Jan. 6 she’d never seen before in Capital Punishment and said that once others saw the footage, like her, they agreed that “it was not 9/11. It was not Pearl Harbor,” and that they wondered “why are these people being treated like, I mean murder or something.”
This same kind of indifference popped up on this podcast again in January 2025. Tafoya talked about another Trump pardon for a J6er, “suggesting” people listen to the stories participants are telling, because “the vast majority of them were not violent.”
In response to all of these comments being newly reported, Tafoya told Punchbowl News in a statement, ‘I’m a journalist who’s recorded hundreds of interviews. It’s easy to take things out of context.”
Flanagan’s response
Tafoya and her opponent, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, are both running to replace DFL Sen. Tina Smith, who’s retiring after eight years to spend more time with family. A Republican hasn’t held the seat since 2009.
In response to Tafoya’s remarks, Flanagan described the comments as “disqualifying.”
“January 6th was a deadly attempt to overturn our country’s free and fair election – but you wouldn’t know that by listening to Michele Tafoya,” she told Courier Minnesota. “She has used her media platform to promote Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories about voter fraud and even called January 6th rioters ‘really good people.’ Michele Tafoya is a MAGA Republican, right down to her flippant and dangerous denial of what really happened on January 6th. Minnesotans deserve a senator focused on what they need, not someone busy sucking up to Donald Trump.”
On issues from immigration, healthcare, and civil rights, Flanagan and Tafoya are running very different campaigns. To learn more about their positions on ICE, voting rights, Medicaid funding, read our overview here, and to learn more about their plans to fight government corruption head here.
