Yahoo Finance Bizarre theory about item wrapped in towel of viral Trump supporter
A bizarre theory has emerged suggesting there was something other than mace that caused redness in the eyes of a Trump supporter that stormed the US Capitol.
Elizabeth Koch, from Tennessee, featured in a viral video from Yahoo News’ White House correspondent Hunter Walker, who spoke with the 31-year-old as she was leaving the Capitol.
Ms Koch choked back tears while telling Walker she was maced by a police officer while trying to gain entry to the building.
“I made it like a foot inside and they pushed me out and they maced me,” she recalled.
She was then asked why she wanted to enter the Capitol, where Congress were meeting to certify Joe Biden's election victory over Donald Trump.
“Because we’re storming the Capitol. It’s a revolution,” Ms Koch responded.
After footage of her reaction was uploaded to Twitter, attention was drawn to a peculiar item she was carrying in her hand, wrapped in a towel.
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Many couldn’t help but notice the pale yellow circular object had a strange likeness to an onion, and speculated if she had been inducing her eye redness on purpose.
“Why is she rubbing an onion in her eye, is this an American tradition or something?,” someone replied to the tweet.
“She’s got an onion in a towel and she’s rubbing it in her eye. Are you sure she was sprayed?,” another wrote.
“Why is she holding AN ONION!!! In that towel and rubbing it in her eye!?!,” someone else said.
A woman responded to the post claiming to be a relative of Ms Koch and that she had heard the item was instead a piece of ice, not an onion.
“Tracy says she is Elizabeth's relative and that they claim it is ice she's holding, but where the hell has she obtained ice from during riotous insurrection,” Walker wrote in a reply.
“Sorry but that's a pretty f****** big, onion-coloured piece of ice,” he added, with a zoomed in image of the object in her hand.
Others chimed in backing up the onion theory, reporting that some protesters believed “onions help the eyes after you've been pepper sprayed or maced or whatever”.
“The idea is that the onion protects against the pepper spray. They honestly tell each other that,” another said.
The method seems to have been adapted elsewhere, with Palestinian protesters historically using onion among a multitude of other defences in an effort to protect themselves from tear gas.
Still, the question of where would one attain an onion in the midst of a chaotic riot remains.
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