GREENE SAYS CAPITOL RIOTERS NOT SUPPORTERS OF TRUMP
Lawmaker tweets after being removed from committees
According to the House’s top-ranking Republican, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., emerged from the imbroglio over her past embrace of conspiracy theories and disinformation regretful and committed to holding herself to the “higher standard” her position demands.
But less than a week after her social media activity prompted House Democrats to strip Greene of her two committee assignments, she took to Twitter on Tuesday morning and spread another false claim, implying that those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 were not supporters of President Donald Trump.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. — who had a private conversation with Greene and has publicly defended her since — declined to comment on the freshman lawmaker’s latest statements, which came on the day the Senate convened its second impeachment trial of Trump, who was charged with inciting the
deadly attack.
McCarthy has for weeks been leading his party on a delicate path through the post-Trump political landscape, trying to balance more traditional conservatism with the hard-right bombast emanating from lawmakers such as Greene. McCarthy has signaled that he’s focused on presenting a united front as the GOP seeks to regain control of the chamber in 2022.
The House’s second most powerful Republican, Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, also did not respond to Greene’s tweets. Instead, a spokeswoman for Scalise noted the lawmaker’s “strong disagreement”
with Greene’s previous remarks.
Greene began her series of posts by writing: “If the #Jan6 organizers were Trump supporters, then why did they attack us while we were objecting to electoral college votes for Joe Biden? The attack RUINED our objection that we spent weeks preparing for, which devastated our efforts on behalf of Trump and his voters.”
She said the attackers were “against the government ALL together” and that the storming of the Capitol “was planned and organized, NOT incited in the moment by President Trump.”