Former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a tribute to January 6 participants as the fifth anniversary of the Capitol attack nears.
Greene resigned on Monday following a falling out with President Donald Trump over a number of issues last year. She has stated that she has no intention of staying in politics, but by praising the rioters' "patriotism," she seemed to be hinting that she might not be finished with their shared "America First" cause just yet.
It's unclear if the MAGA movement would ever accept her back following her alleged betrayal of the 47th president.
She continued by reminiscing about a group of inmates who invited her to join them in singing the national song and about one of them holding a hand-drawn Stars-and-Stripes flag.
“Their melodic voices which combined their deep sadness and their unwavering patriotic conviction is a sound I’ll never forget,”
she said.
Greene concluded by observing,
“Your government can break you. It can shatter your life. There should never be a two tiered justice system in America where one set of political protesters are freed from their charges and the other set of political protesters are crushed as an example to never rise up against your government.
Instead it is your right to hold your government accountable to you, the American people.”
On January 6, Trump supporters invaded the Capitol after then-Vice President Mike Pence certified former President Joe Biden's election victory, resulting in five fatalities and numerous injuries, including over 100 police officers.
Before order could be restored, some of the rioters broke into the legislative complex, roaming the halls and vandalizing offices, including that of then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Lawmakers and aides gathered inside the complex had to escape for their lives as violent clashes broke out between protesters and law enforcement on the steps outside.
In the end, more than 1,500 people were charged for their involvement in the altercation, but as soon as Trump took office again in January of last year, he pardoned everyone.
Out of that number, two were charged with rape, five with possessing illegal weapons, five with driving while intoxicated, and six with child sex offenses.
Despite Trump's inability to demonstrate that Biden's election victory was fraudulent, Greene has consistently backed the riots and has a habit of using the day to make divisive remarks.
In October 2021, she dismissed it as "just a riot," arguing that the Declaration of Independence urged Americans to "overthrow tyrants" anyway. In April 2022, she criticized the
"over-dramatization of a riot that happened here at the Capitol one time."
She raised alarm at a Young Republican Club dinner in New York in December 2022 when she asserted that "we would have won" if she and Steve Bannon had planned the Capitol siege. In addition, it would have been armed.
Greene falsely stated in her book, MTG, which was released in November 2023, that no Democratic members of Congress had assisted in defending the House of Representatives during an attempted break-in.
“Several of the Republican congressmen said, ‘We’re going to stay right here and defend the House chamber,’”
she wrote.
“As they began barricading the door with furniture, I noticed not one Democrat was willing to stay to defend the chamber.”
Many members of the chamber at the time disagreed with her account, pointing out that Democratic congressman Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger, and Seth Moulton and Ruben Gallego, all former Marines, were crucial in assisting their colleagues in avoiding danger.
Greene continued by defending Trump's mass pardoning and threatening Matthew Graves, the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia who prosecuted the participants.
“All of y’all’s obsession with January 6 is absurd,”
she
told a journalist last January.
“Everybody outside of here is sick and f*****g tired of it… Everybody up here has their panties in a wad.”
Why did Marjorie Taylor Greene step down from Congress?
Marjorie Taylor Greene said she was relinquishing from Congress because a veritable public falling ‑ out with Donald Trump had made her re ‑ election shot untenable and she didn't want to force her quarter through a brutal primary that the former chairman was promising to target.
After years as a high ‑ profile MAGA supporter, she began openly criticising Trump over his turndown to completely release lines related to Jeffrey Epstein, as well as corridor of his foreign policy and healthcare docket; Trump responded by imprinting her a “ snake ” and covenanting to back a primary rival in her Georgia quarter.
In her abdication videotape she said she “ refuse( d) to be a battered woman hoping it all goes down and gets better, ” arguing that staying on would mean a “ hurtful and spiteful primary ” driven by the chairman she and her choosers had formerly supported.