As Congress begins public hearings on the attempted coup of Jan. 6, 2021, here in the Hudson Valley several local politicians either went to Washington D.C. that day, cheered those attending, and continue to embrace the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Liz Joy, the Republican again running against Rep. Paul Tonko in New York's 20th Congressional District, Tweeted the day before that she was attending the DC riot, and Tweeted during the disturbance that, "Hundreds of thousands of people attended today’s rally to stand for Election Integrity." Joy said that if she had been in office on Jan. 6, 2021, she would have voted against certifying the election. “Joe Biden is the president — period,” Joy said. “But I do believe there was massive voter fraud in our 2020 elections. And we have to get it right before we have the 2022 election.” Rep. Elise Stefanik, from New York's 21 District which will include Rensselaer County next year, continues to support the coup and overturning a fair and free election, even after the violence. She posted on Twitter after the riot that, "Americans have a Constitutional right to protest and freedom of speech, but violence in any form is absolutely unacceptable and anti-American." But Stefanik's Senior Advisor Alex deGrasse retweeted a message during the riot claiming the rioters were undercover leftists, without any evidence. Farther south, MidHudson News reported that state Assemblymember Colin Schmitt, a New Windsor Republican, was photographed the morning of Jan. 6, speaking maskless to a busload of people departing for the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Schmitt is running for the 18th Congressional seat this year. But before the photo of Schmitt talking to the busload of people en route to Washington surfaced, he issued a statement saying, “I am deeply disturbed by the assault on the United States Capitol today. There is absolutely no justification for any form of violence against the pillars of our democracy.”