WWL host Newell Normand weighed in on the anniversary of Jan. 6 as people on both sides readied to try to claim the high ground.
"There was a lot of despicable behavior that occurred on that day," Normand said, adding, "I don't know what the absolute intentions were or weren't. But needless to say there's a fine line in this peaceful transition that we have in our government and for whatever reason people crossed it that day. There were those that were there who clearly knew they shouldn't have gone into that building. They were scaling the walls. They were doing all kinds of kinds of things in order to get to a place. There were barricades. There were officers that were pushed down. Officers who were shoved. Officers who were so outnumbered they knew whatever they did at this point in time would be absolutely stupid."
And both sides -- Democrats and Republicans -- have mischaracterized what happened that day for political purposes, Normand said.
There was no way the Founding Fathers would have wanted one person to be able to shut down a democratic election, he added.
And beyond that, there was no real evidence of fraud in the election, Normand said, adding "we've just got to call it for what it was."
What's happened, Newell said, is people now have stories about local and state leaders being pressured to certify something for political purposes that needed to be decided only by a court of law -- not a person.
"The goal of the win is so important that we're willing to sacrifice our own moral compass that should be intact on this issue and it's not because we're only focused on the prize," he said. Fighting and calling each other names -- like RHINO -- is wrong when people are just trying to stick to their own moral compass, even when it means crossing party lines.
Newell made it clear he's willing to call out the Republican party when it needs to be called out and he's even willing to cross party lines. "The win is not that important to me," he said, adding that it's certainly not worth sacrificing democracy.