Pelosi calls Capitol rioter with 'Camp Auschwitz' shirt a 'punk'
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called a man wearing a "Camp Auschwitz" top during the attack on the Capitol "this punk with that shirt on." The man has been identified as Robert Keith Packer and has been arrested in connection with the riot.
Video Transcript
NANCY PELOSI: I find this to be a very emotional time. I said to the members, we're very passionate to our reaction to this assault on our democracy, on this temple to democracy. We're very passionate about our reaction, but we must be very dispassionate in how we make decisions to go forward for security, security, security.
As I see many of the film-- and the incitement of it all by the President of the United States-- but as you see the film, one figure-- there was so many disgusting images-- but one figure of a man in a shirt with Auschwitz on it-- Auschwitz. Work equals freedom for Auschwitz.
This is-- in this January, one year ago, I had the privilege of bringing a delegation in January to Yad Vashem, the Museum of the Holocaust in Israel, to joint heads of state-- I came as the head of this Congress-- to observe the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. On the way to Israel, I brought the delegation to Auschwitz and Birkenau-- probably one of the most transformative national security visits that we have made. All of our travel outside the country is about our national security, and so was that.
To see the dehumanizing of people that was perpetrated there was so, so overwhelming. To see this punk with that shirt on and his anti-Semitism that he has bragged about, to be part of a white supremacist raid on this Capitol requires us to have an aftef-action review, to assign responsibility to those who are part of organizing it and incentivizing it.
