Normally, when picking people for top government positions that require Senate approval, such as BLS Commissioner, you don't also choose someone who rioted against your own government. But these are not normal times, are they?
Source: NBC News
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's pick to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics was among the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with the White House saying he was a "bystander" who wandered over after seeing coverage on the news.
E.J. Antoni, an economist from the Heritage Foundation nominated by Trump this week, after the president fired the previous BLS head, appears in numerous videos posted on social media of the crowd on the Capitol grounds.
The footage shows Antoni approximately an hour after the mob removed police barricades. The footage appears to show him leaving the grounds as people entered the Capitol and not entering the building.
Antoni is on the west side of the Capitol in one video, archived from the social media website Parler, and appears in surveillance footage posted online by the Republican-led Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight.
Reached by NBC News on Tuesday, Antoni declined to comment.
Since Senate Republicans are completely shameless (meaning, they cannot be shamed into doing the right thing), it's doubtful in my view whether they will hold a little rioting against the man now that Dear Leader has chosen him. But we'll soon see.
The guy Trump nominated to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics at January 6, amazing scoop by Ryan Reillyhttps://t.co/nNFv1GBlkA pic.twitter.com/Lv64yranwr
— Aaron Fritschner (@Fritschner) August 14, 2025
Just an honest labor statistician collecting the data, crunching the numbers, and reporting them fairly, and definitely not an extremist ideologue with an axe to grind, unshackled from respect for the law or political norms. pic.twitter.com/qjlx3YuJO1
— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) August 14, 2025
