Curious Reads: Family is Complicated for an Insurrectionist

A January 6th defendant pleads his case to the adult son who turned him in to the Feds.

Hello friend, Liz here.

#1 Today’s top of the fold story is the story of a January 6th defendant whose adult son turned him in to the FBI and what their relationship is like now.

For those of us who understand the difficulty of parent/adult child political disagreements, the story of Brian Mock (age 44) and his son A.J. (21) will hit a nerve.

Read “A Jan. 6 Defendant Pleads His Case to the Son Who Turned Him In” by Eli Saslow at the New York Times.

Photo by Nate Gowdy from his book, Insurrection: January 6, Up Close and Firsthand, featured by Mother Jones.

The Highlights:

A.J. and his dad, Brian, generally like and trust each other. In fact, when A.J. came out as gay to his dad over text by sending him a link to a cheesy YouTube song, his dad responded seconds later saying, “I love you. I’m proud of you. But I’ll never forgive you for getting this dumb song stuck in my head.”

The two joke around. They enjoy each others’ company. But father and son disagree about Brian’s actions on January 6