White House condemns Greene over claim she would have ‘won’ Jan. 6 insurrection

WASHINGTON – The White House on Monday strongly condemned the claim from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that she and former Trump aide Stephen K. Bannon would have executed a successful attack on Jan. 6, 2021, if they had organized the storming of the U.S. Capitol and that they would have “been armed.”

The divisive Republican pushed back on theories that she was a ringleader of the violent incident that left more than 100 law enforcement officers injured. “I want to tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, we would’ve been armed,” Greene said Saturday at a dinner hosted by the New York Young Republican Club, according to the New York Post.

Deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates said the comments were a “slap in the face” to the law enforcement officers who risked their lives to keep Greene and other lawmakers safe from the violent mob seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and stop Congress from counting the electoral votes for Joe Biden’s win over President Donald Trump.

“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,” Bates said in a statement. “This violent rhetoric is a slap in the face to the Capitol Police, the DC Metropolitan Police, the National Guard, and the families who lost loved ones as a result of the attack on the Capitol.

“All leaders have a responsibility to condemn these dangerous, abhorrent remarks and stand up for our Constitution and the rule of law,” Bates added.

Greene said Monday that her comment was a “sarcastic joke” about President Biden in a statement that mentioned Hollywood celebrities, drag queens and antifa.

“The White House needs to learn how sarcasm works,” Greene said. “My comments were making fun of Joe Biden and the Democrats, who have continuously made me a political target since January 6th.”

Greene has regularly argued that participants in the Jan. 6 attack have been mistreated and she has indicated that she plans to investigate the bipartisan House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attacks when Republicans take the majority in January. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is hoping to become speaker in the next Congress, also has signaled that the GOP would investigate the panel.

The insurrection, the worst attack on the seat of U.S. democracy in more than two centuries, left four people dead, and police officer Brian D. Sicknick, who had been sprayed with a powerful chemical irritant, had two strokes and died the next day.

Greene is scheduled to appear as keynote speaker at the Lincoln Day Dinner in February at the Coeur d’Alene Resort. The event is a fundraiser for the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.