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Richard Barnett: How the self-described 'white nationalist' found himself wth his feet up on Nancy Pelosi's desk

Barnett, 60, was taken into custody on Friday on charges of entering and remaining on restricted grounds, violent entry and theft of public property, according to a Department of Justice official

One of the protesters who not only was among the mob, which stormed the Capitol Building on January 6 but also found his way to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, and also proceeded to pose for a picture with his legs stretched on her desk, recently claimed that he was only trying to find a bathroom. “I didn’t do anything. I didn’t breach the doors. I got shoved in. I didn’t mean to be there. Hell. I was walking around looking for a bathroom,” the man, Richard Barnett of Gravette Arkansas, told 5News, an Arkansas-based CBS affiliate.

Barnett, 60, was taken into custody on Friday on charges of entering and remaining on restricted grounds, violent entry and theft of public property, according to a Department of Justice official. 

The pro-Donald Trump rioter claimed that he was pushed inside the secured facility by the mob which was being tear-gassed by Capitol police officers. “They went to the front door, and they started demanding to be let inside. I wasn’t even up there at that point. I was climbing the steps to see what was going on. When I got to the top, they had breached the doors and were trying to get in,” Barnett said.

We previously reported that he was carrying a flag in her office and even left a note for the house speaker before Capitol Police got hold of him. He told 5NEWS, "I threw my feet up on the desk at that point. I realized some a**holes had cut me also and I bled on her envelope, so I picked up the envelope and put it in my pocket, and I put a quarter on the desk cause I'm not a thief.” 

The note he wrote to Pelosi read “Nancy, Bigo was here, you B*tch," which was a reference to his nickname. Barnett is now facing potential federal charges for storming the US Capitol building but Barnett said that he wasn't scared of going to jail. Barnett identified himself as a “white nationalist” in a post on Saturday on a pseudonymous Facebook page, according to the Washington Post. “I am white. There is no denying that. I am a nationalist. I put my nation first. So that makes me a white nationalist,” Barnett wrote in the post, adding that people who aren’t nationalists should “get the fuck out of our nation.”

Barnett also posted a picture of himself on Facebook on December 18 stating: “I came into this world kicking and screaming, covered in someone else’s blood. I’m not afraid to go out the same way.”

This isn’t the time first Barnett has taken to the streets to show his opposition to the government as he had previously caught the attention of the media by taking part in a March against the mask mandate in July in Bentonville. He was among many who said the government shouldn’t tell them “how to live”, despite surging cases from the coronavirus. Expressing his opinion on the mask mandate, Barnett had said in a statement, "I think the government is here to protect our Constitution, not to protect our health. It is our right and our responsibility to take care of our own health. The government needs to do its job.”