YouTuber who joined Capitol riot accompanied Republican members of Congress on border trip
A conservative YouTuber who joined the Capitol riot also accompanied Republican members of Congress on a trip to the southern border.
An ally of Georgia Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, Anthony Aguero, joined the Tuesday night trip, at times performing the role of translator, CNN reported. He can be seen in videos and images from the trip along a part of the border often used by migrants.
It has been previously reported that Aguero participated in the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January and justified the break-in.
He livestreamed the visit to the border, speaking to Representatives Tom Tiffany, Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, Chris Jacobs, Michael Cloud, John Rose, Ronny Jackson, and Mary Miller.
Aguero told viewers of his livestream that Border Patrol was “herding” migrants towards a spot where they would be able to intercept them.
“We’re about to catch them all as they basically come out of the woodworks,” he said.
He told CNN in a statement: “I appreciate the Congressmen and Congresswomen that went out of their way to come to the border to see the crisis for themselves”.
He has not been charged for unlawful entry at the Capitol. He chanted “heave-ho” as people were trying to break in, entered the rotunda, and later chanted “our house” on the Capitol steps.
In a livestream on the day after the Capitol riot, Aguero slammed those who condemned the storming of the building. The FBI has previously declined to comment on whether they are investigating the YouTuber, according to CNN.
The Republican Study Committee organised the trip to La Joya in Texas. The Representatives were there in the lead up to a visit by former President Donald Trump. Aguero sat in the audience behind Mr Trump as he spoke to Sean Hannity of Fox News.
The RSC’s deputy communications director Buckley Carlson said Aguero’s presence at the border was “purely incidental”.
“Chairman [Jim] Banks never spoke to the individual in question, the Republican Study Committee was unaware of his identity and whereabouts on January 6, and he did not travel with our group to the border,” the spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.
Aguero told members that he was there as an “independent journalist” from Border Network News.
In the YouTube livestream, he can be seen sometimes translating conversations with migrants for the members, including Reps Boebert, Tiffany, August Pfluger, and Randy Weber.
“Come right in the front, Congressman,” Aguero told Mr Weber as they rode in Aguero’s vehicle together after Mr Weber missed his van. “You can ride in the front with me.”
At the end of the stream, Aguero posed for a photo with Ms Boebert.
Aguero ran in the Republican primary for a House seat in El Paso, Texas in 2020. He often films migrants along the border as well as the actions of far-right groups.
In a clip from 2019, Aguero can be heard screaming at migrants crossing the border and he can be seen shining a light in their faces. He tells a group of migrants in the clip that they “come out like roaches, out of everywhere”. He later deleted the clip from Facebook, according to PBS.
Online court records show that he has a history of violent crime, pleading guilty to a misdemeanour family violence assault causing serious bodily injury in 2010. He was also sentenced to two years in prison in 2015 following a conviction for felony vehicular assault while intoxicated.
Read More
Migrants held in filthy conditions in Mexico border town
What Trump and Biden both get wrong about the migration ‘crisis’ at the border
