A man who bragged about chugging wine at the Capitol riot is campaigning for office. He learned mid-interview he's running for the wrong seat.

Advertisement
A man who bragged about chugging wine at the Capitol riot is campaigning for office. He learned mid-interview he's running for the wrong seat.
Jason Riddle (L) being interviewed as a political candidate and (R) holding a bottle of wine inside the Capitol building.NBC10 Boston/FBI
  • Jason Riddle was arrested after admitting to chugging wine inside the US Capitol on January 6.
  • His case pending, he is running for the New Hampshire legislature to unseat the Democrat Ann Kuster.
  • In a TV interview, Riddle learned Kuster sits in the US Congress and he is in the wrong race.
Advertisement

A man who was charged after bragging that he had guzzled wine during the Capitol riot is now running for office - but appears to have accidentally joined the wrong race.

Jason Riddle of New Hampshire was arrested in February after he told NBC10 Boston that he joined rioters on January 6 as they stormed the Capitol.

He is accused of illegally entering a restricted building, theft of government property, and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, according to a criminal complaint.

He has now decided to enter politics and run for state representative, he said Sunday, with the intention of unseating the Democrat Ann Kuster in the 2022 midterms, the channel reported.

Kuster, however, is not a state representative but rather a member of the US Congress.

Advertisement

"I thought Ann was a state representative?" he said, when the reporter Katherine Underwood corrected him.

"No," Underwood said. "So, a state representative is in the State House in Concord."

"Yeah, that's what Ann is," Riddle said.

When Underwood informed him that Kuster actually worked out of Washington, DC, Riddle said: "Well, I guess I've got to run against that then."

A man who bragged about chugging wine at the Capitol riot is campaigning for office. He learned mid-interview he's running for the wrong seat.
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they push barricades to storm the US Capitol in Washington D.C on January 6, 2021.Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images

But Riddle is barred from entering Washington while his case is pending, the network reported.

Advertisement

He also talked to the network about what running a political campaign was like while going through the court case.

He said he thought the notoriety from the court proceedings could only help him politically, saying: "In the long run, if you're running for office, I guess attention is good - attention I think will help me."

The fact that he joined the Capitol riot tells voters "I'm going to show up," he said. "I'm going to actually keep my promises and make some changes," he continued.

In January, Riddle told the network he hadn't been able to believe that former President Donald Trump had lost the 2020 election.

He said that he traveled to Washington and that when he saw people storming the Capitol he got swept up in the excitement and went in because he "just had to see it."

Advertisement

Once inside, he said, he raided the liquor cabinet of a member of Congress, "chugged it, and got out of there."

{{}}