washington –
The White House on Monday condemned comments by U.S. Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recently said that if she had been responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, it would have been successful and the attackers would have been armed.
“Members of Congress wanting the January 6 massacre to be worse and boasting that they could have successfully launched an armed insurrection against the U.S. government is contrary to our values as a nation,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
“Violent statements like these are a slap in the face to the Capitol Police, the D.C. Metropolitan Police, the National Guard and the families who lost loved ones to the Capitol attack,” Jean-Pierre said.
Speaking at a gala at the Young Republican Club of New York on Park Avenue in Manhattan over the weekend, Green joked about the Jan. 6 attack that killed five people and wounded more than 100 police officers.
“January 6th happened, next thing you know, I organized the whole thing, and Steve Bannon was here. I’ll tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I organized that, we’d would have won. Not to mention, it would have been armed,” Green said, referring to a one-time adviser to former U.S. President Donald Trump.
She also added: “See it’s all a joke, isn’t it? They said the whole thing was planned and I thought, are you kidding me? A bunch of conservatives, 2nd Amendment supporters, no guns Just went into the Capitol and they think we organized it? I don’t think so.”
In a statement to CNN on Monday, Green said she was being sarcastic and denied any involvement in the Jan. 6 attack. Green took to Twitter to invite people to the Jan. 6 event.
Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Kanishka Singh and Steve Holland; Editing by Mark Porter, Heather Timmons and Marguerita Choy