Marjorie Taylor Greene Thanks Jan. 6 Capitol Attack Rioter for Assault on Democracy
The events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, shocked the nation as rioters broke through barriers and caused mayhem. Their goal was to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election win. While most criticized the violence, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene had a different opinion. On Monday, she thanked one of the January 6 rioters who entered the Capitol through a broken window and drank shots of whiskey in Nancy Pelosi's office, as reported by Raw Story.
During a hearing on the treatment of Jan. 6 capitol attack prisoners, Greene questioned Treniss Evans about his actions that day. "The government was kind enough to provide me a federal prison stay for demonstrations," Evans said. Greene subsequently asked, "Did you, just to be clear, did you burn down the Capitol on January 6th?" Evans responded by saying he would have been treated better if he were an Antifa protester who caused $34,000 in damage to federal property, as someone who did that was sentenced the same day. "Did you assault anyone on January 6th?" Greene further questioned.
"Only the fabric of democracy, I hear," Evans quipped. In response, Greene remarked, "Thank you. God bless you for your humor." It's no shock that Greene would laugh at a joke about attacking democracy, considering her stance on the Capitol insurrection. She once claimed that if she had led the January 6 attack, people would have been armed. As reported by CNN, she said, "I come to Washington, I swear in on January 3, I get accused of giving insurrection tours, which I thought was hilarious because I couldn't even find the bathroom in the Capitol. True story."
She added, "Then January 6 happens, and next thing you know, I organized the whole thing along with Steve Bannon here. And I gotta tell you something— If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, it would have been armed." She continued, "They say that whole thing was planned and I'm like, 'Are you kidding me?' A bunch of conservative, Second Amendment supporters went into the Capitol without guns and they think we organized that? I don't think so." Greene later clarified in a statement that she was being sarcastic and denied having any role in the January 6 riot.
Nevertheless, the White House quickly denounced Greene's remarks, labeling them as violent rhetoric and an insult to both law enforcement and the families of those who lost their lives defending the Capitol on that tragic day. Spokesperson Andrew Bates said, "It goes against our fundamental values as a country for a Member of Congress to wish that the carnage of January 6th had been even worse, and to boast that she would have succeeded in an armed insurrection against the United States government." Greene has also previously attempted to downplay the deadly insurrection, dismissing it as just a riot.
