East Texas congressman Louie Gohmert suggested Sunday that the Jan. 6 riot was a left-wing conspiracy, denouncing the arrests of people who stormed the Capitol hoping to overturn President Donald Trump’s defeat as “intimidation” in the service of “tyranny.”

“I advocate for what Dr. King did — peaceful protests. But we can’t let them intimidate us from not protesting. That’s what this treatment of people that got arrested was all about — intimidation,” the Tyler Republican, a former trial judge, said at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Federal authorities are still hunting for 300 suspects in the Capitol attack, and 535 people have been arrested.

Gohmert has been one of the most outspoken members of Congress echoing Donald Trump’s unproven claims that the election was stolen. On Jan. 6, Congress met to ratify the Electoral College tallies that by then each state had certified. Gohmert supported objections that would have nullified millions of votes.

Four days earlier, he had suggested that “violence in the streets” might be the only remaining option to block Joe Biden from becoming president.

On Sunday, at CPAC in Dallas, Gohmert suggested that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was to blame for the violent siege that sent lawmakers fleeing for safety, with Secret Service agents hustling Vice President Mike Pence into hiding for hours.

“On January 6th, the sergeant at arms had turned down, on behalf of the speaker, having National Guard there to help protect the Capitol. Why did that happen? You think they were setting things up?” said Gohmert, who won his seat in 2004.

Gohmert tied that conspiracy theory to the plot by anti-government extremists to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, last October. Fourteen men, apparently angered by lockdown orders intended to blunt the COVID-19 pandemic, face charges. The FBI and state authorities had infiltrated the group, and Gohmert insinuated that if federal informants knew about the plot, that made it a government conspiracy.

“What I read said five out of the 14 were working for the FBI, the feds ... . What percentage does it take of federal agents to make it a government conspiracy? This has got to stop,” he said.

As for the suspects in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, he portrayed them as political prisoners who are being denied access to 14,000 hours of surveillance footage that might help prove their innocence.

“Look, there’s been fraud in our elections. And some of us stood up and objected. And the Democrats went nuts,” he said, urging CPAC attendees to “encourage your member of Congress to join me in going to the jail in D.C. and demanding to see those prisoners. Tell your Congress members, and in the meantime, we have got to stand strong and not be intimidated by the federales using tyranny to try to stop us.”

Fauci: CPAC crowd cheering anti-vaccine remarks is ‘horrifying’

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday said he found it “horrifying” that an audience at CPAC loudly cheered anti-vaccine comments during a panel discussion earlier in the weekend conservative gathering being held in Dallas.

A Saturday panel, titled “Are the leftovers from the pandemic here to stay?” featured author Alex Berenson, who has long criticized coronavirus vaccines and Fauci’s response to the virus on social media.

“They were hoping — the government was hoping — that they could sort of sucker 90% of the population into getting vaccinated,” Berenson said to cheers, “and it isn’t happening. Younger people are well aware of what the risks really are and are well aware of the side effect profile of the vaccine ... so there is going to be more pressure.”

President Joe Biden had set a goal for 70% of American adults to receive at least one dose of the vaccine before the July 4 holiday — a goal that was narrowly missed. As of Sunday, 67.6% of American adults ― about 174 million people ― have received at least one dose.

Fauci on Sunday called the crowd’s reaction “horrifying.”

“I mean, they are cheering about someone saying that it’s a good thing for people not to try and save their lives,” Fauci told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “It’s almost frightening.”

Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, is among the most vilified public figures at the Conservative Political Action Conference, which is being held at the Hilton Anatole near downtown Dallas. Speakers who mention Fauci’s name are almost always greeted with a chorus of boos.

“Fauci is better at pitching baseballs than he is at science, OK?” Donald Trump Jr. said during his speech on Friday.

On Sunday, one CPAC attendee wore a T-shirt bearing a picture of Fauci with prison bars superimposed over his face. “This is what the real lockdown should look like,” the shirt said.

Matt Gaetz, Allen West host unsanctioned talk during conference

While CPAC is undeniably united in its support for Donald Trump, some Republicans peeled away from the main convention to host an unsanctioned panel, railing against what they described as establishment, big-monied Republicans who comprise the conservative gathering.

The panel, hosted by Look Ahead America, took place on the third day of the conservative convention, but in a different part of the hotel. While flyers advertising the panel described it as an “official CPAC event,” organizers confirmed CPAC had nothing to do with putting the event together.

“This is the main room at CPAC right now,” said Look Ahead American founder Matt Braynard.

It featured Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and former Texas Republican Party chairman Allen West. While West spoke earlier in the day during the actual CPAC convention, Gaetz did not have a speaking spot during the conference.

“Turns out, many of the CPAC organizers and main sponsors are lobbyist and political action committees, which may go a long way to explain why I’m here with you in the Monet Room,” Gaetz told a crowd of a few dozen gathered in a hotel conference room.

Gaetz went on to describe a “civil war” in the Republican Party. Mentions of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell drew boos from the crowd. He called a group of left-wing Muslim congresswomen the “Jihad Squad” and railed against the Pentagon subsidy of gender-affirming surgeries.

The panel represented another example of Republican infighting during the weekend convention. Earlier in the day, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem criticized Republican governors whom she did not name for enacting mask mandates and other restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Now I’m not picking fights with Republican governors,” Noem said. “All I’m saying is that we need leaders with grit. That their first instinct is the right instinct.”