Iced Earth’s Jon Schaffer was among the angry mob storming the US Capitol

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By ( Metal Hammer ) published

Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer photographed with Trump supporters inside the US Capitol during unrest

Ice Earth Jon S
(Image credit: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

Iced Earth bandleader Jon Schaffer was photographed amid the angry mob of protestors who breached the US Capitol building in Washington DC yesterday (January 6).

Four people died during the violent protests, which took place in opposition to a joint session of the US Congress convened to certify Joe Biden’s victory in November’s Presidential elections.

Schaffer was photographed by Roberto Schmidt of the AFP agency with a group of demonstrators who stormed the Capitol as politicians debated the electoral vote.

This is the second time in recent months that Iced Earth’s guitarist and main songwriter has been photographed alongside supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump. On November 15, Schaffer spoke to the German daily newspaper Die Welt while attending another protest in the US capital, and journalist Carolina Drüten posted a photo of the guitarist at the time.

“If someone uses violence against us, we will react accordingly. We don't want that, but we are ready,” Schaffer told Drüten. 

Denouncing the American political establishment, Schaffer warned,"They will go down. They're messing with the wrong people, believe me.”

During a September 2020 Facebook live chat, Schaffer voiced his distrust of the US political system.

"I'm not a left-or-right guy,” he stressed. “I'm an American — that's my country; that's where I live. I don't trust my government. I don't give a shit if it's an 'R' or a 'D' next to the name of the person. I try to understand the bigger picture. I've done a lot of reading and a lot of studying. I'm a man of my convictions, and I don't say stuff that I don't truly believe.”

"You can't put your hope into one president or one person, or a mayor or a governor or whatever,” he added. “You've gotta be out there and actively put pressure on these people, let 'em know you're paying attention. If you're not paying attention, they're gonna rob you and steal everything. Your freedom too. Not just your money. They're gonna steal your fucking freedom. 'Cause they're a bunch of sick control freaks."

Speaking to the Metal Sucks Quarantinecast podcast in July, Schaffer also claimed  that Covid-19 is "a psychological warfare campaign on the people more than it is a serious pandemic", and said that there were “unbelievable levels of fraud” involved in government responses to the pandemic.

“Anybody that knows me knows where I stand,” he added. “I don’t trust the government, I don’t trust the bureaucrats, not at all, because I’ve actually read their gameplan. I knew this was coming, I wrote about, warned about it [but] people didn’t want to pay attention.”

A number of rock stars have spoken up against the protests in America’s capital. 

“These are TERRORISTS,” Kiss frontman Paul Stanley stated on Twitter. “This is armed insurrection. The flames were fanned today & over time by the president & specific senators who CANNOT be allowed now to distance from or denounce what they have directly caused. Know their names. THIS is the result of their deception. Shame.”

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