Marjorie Taylor Greene promotes conspiracy theory over Jan 6 riots and suggests ‘Feds encouraged it’
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Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene has sought to promote a conspiracy theory over the Jan 6 riots by a pro-Trump mob and suggested federal agents “encouraged people to go in” to the US Capitol.
The GOP congresswoman made the remarks at “Americafest”, a three-day event in Phoenix, Arizona organized by Turning Point USA, a youth conservative student movement for “freedom, free markets and limited government”.
In a speech to young conservatives, the representative from Georgia said that she had been in the Capitol at the time and was among more than 150 Republicans trying to stop Joe Biden being certified as president.
She said people had travelled to Washington DC to assemble over election integrity, “because they felt their election was stolen, they felt their votes were stolen. And it was so important to them to show up and use their First Amendment rights to protests”.
She continued: “As a matter of fact, when they heard the speech that President Trump gave, and President Trump called them to peacefully...to walk in peace and love and go to the Capitol to make their voices heard, there was something set up there.”
Citing as evidence an article published this summer on the website Revolver News, she said that as Trump supporters walked to the Capitol after his speech, “there were people there urging them to go in because, when many of them got there after President Trump finished speaking, there was something are already underway”.
She added: “The Democrats call it an insurrection, but I think we can start calling it a Fed-surrection.”
The congresswoman claimed it was “really interesting” that the congressional committee investigating the storming of the Capitol, an incident which left five people dead including a police officer, were “not working on that”.
“No, they’re more interested in targeting Republicans and President Trump. It’s the same playbook we saw with Russia collusion. It’s the exact same playbook,” she said.
The remarks from the congresswoman echoes other conservatives who have claimed that it was not supporters of Mr Trump who led the storming of the Capitol, but rather left wing “antifa” activists or federal agents.
Speaking at Americafest on Saturday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed many of the 700 people who have been charged over the riot did little more than “walk down the hall”.
Ms Greene said on Sunday that she did not like what happened that day, because she was in the building, and conceded that many of those in jail “did riot”.
She added: “I will not defend what they did at the Capitol that day, because I didn’t like it. I was in there when it happened.”
She alleged that people were being held in solitary confinement and refused bail. She also claimed the FBI was “hunting” people down and raiding their homes.
The New York Times reported earlier this year that at least one member of the right-wing group, the Proud Boys, who took part in the protest was an FBI informant. Federal authorities have denied they had foreknowledge of what was going to happen.
Meanwhile Liz Cheney, the senior Republican on the House Jan 6 committee, has repeatedly dismissed claims that a false flag operation took place.
“It’s the same kind of thing that you hear from people who say that 9/11 was an inside job, for example. It’s un-American to be spreading those kinds of lies, and they are lies,” the Wyoming congresswoman told Fox News earlier this year.
“An obligation that we share, Democrats and Republicans together, to make sure that we understand every single piece of the facts about what happened that day and to make sure that people who did it are held accountable.”
She added: “And to call it a false flag operation, to spread those kinds of lies, is really dangerous.”
