Iced Earth Founder Jon Schaffer Reportedly Among MAGA Rioters Who Invaded the Capitol

Photo by Alexandre Cardoso, via Wikipedia
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Yesterday, the world saw history in the making as an angry mob of Trump supporters broke into the Capitol Building, causing destruction and looting the United States Senate chamber with little to no resistance from the Capitol Police. Now, photos have emerged showing that Jon Schaffer, the founding guitarist and chief songwriter behind American power metal act Iced Earth, was among the crowds storming the Capitol.

Speculation that Schaffer was part of the riot — which went down at the encouragement of Donald Trump to interrupt the process of counting electoral votes that would declare Joe Biden our next president, a count that has since been completed and confirmed by Vice President Mike Pence — when CBS published this image of rioters inside the Capitol. Other outlets began reporting that the man with the white mustache upfront was Schaffer, which MetalSucks seemed to confirm using this composite photo which shows Schaffer’s appearance matching that of the rioter up front. MetalSucks also called attention to a tattoo on the man’s wrist which looks very similar to one Schaffer has on his same arm.

Photo via MetalSucks

For anyone who has followed Iced Earth or Schaffer in recent years, this should be unsurprising. The guitarist has been quite public about his conservative political opinions, and has in the past prominently sported a Confederate flag bandana. That said, him being part of a violent riot that invaded the nation’s Capitol, whose ranks prominently included a man wearing a sweatshirt that read ‘Camp Auschwitz,’ is disheartening to say the least.

Last year, Schaffer also went on MetalSucks’ podcast and claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic was a hoax, saying, “I believe this is a psychological warfare campaign on the people more than it is a serious pandemic. I think there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye here, in fact, I know this is. I mean, legitimate doctors and scientists are being banned or censored on YouTube constantly, it’s… unbelievable levels of fraud. Not saying we don’t have a problem but the human race has faced this kind of thing for millennia, I mean, it just goes on and we don’t shut down the global economy. The death and unrest out of these decisions is going to be a thousand times worse than the virus.”

More on this story as we know it.

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Words by Chris Krovatin