Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Saturday that the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol “would’ve been armed” if she and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon had planned it.
Speaking at a gala for the New York Young Republicans Club, the far-right lawmaker appeared to hit back at claims that she was somehow involved in plotting the Capitol riot.
“Then Jan. 6 happened. And next thing you know, I organized the whole thing, along with Steve Bannon here. And I will tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, it would’ve been armed,” Taylor Greene told the audience.
“See that’s the whole joke, isn’t it. They say that whole thing was planned and I’m like, are you kidding me? A bunch of conservatives, second amendment supporters, went in the Capitol without guns, and they think that we organized that?” Taylor Greene added, per footage shared online.
Greene, an outspoken ally of former President Trump, has long espoused his false claims of fraud during the 2020 presidential election. She was questioned earlier this year by the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 over her role in efforts to stop the certification of President Biden’s win.
Many supporters of Trump who came to Washington on Jan. 6 did bring weapons, and leaders of the Oath Keepers militia group were found guilty last month for seditious conspiracy. Members of the group allegedly stockpiled suitcases full of weapons at a Virginia hotel as part of its planning around that day.
On the morning of Jan. 6, Trump reportedly complained that some of his armed supporters were unable to join the crowd at his speech at the Ellipse, and then called on those same supporters to march to the Capitol, according to former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.
Gavin Wax, president of the New York Young Republicans Club, told the audience at Saturday’s gala that Republicans “want war” against the left.
“We want to cross the Rubicon. We want total war. We must be prepared to do battle in every arena. In the media. In the courtroom. At the ballot box. And in the streets,” Wax said, as reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“This is the only language the left understands. The language of pure and unadulterated power,” Wax added.