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Marjorie Taylor Greene falsely suggests Trump supporters didn't carry out the Capitol siege days after apologizing for endorsing conspiracy theories

marjorie taylor greene congresswoman far right republican conspiracy theorist
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Susan Walsh/AP Photo
  • Greene said the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol may not have consisted of Trump supporters.

  • This came days after Greene apologized for her previous support of conspiracy theories.

  • She was stripped of her committee assignments after endorsing political violence.

  • Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene falsely suggested Tuesday morning that the pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 did not actually consist of Trump supporters.

"If the #Jan6 organizers were Trump supporters, then why did they attack us while we were objecting to electoral college votes for Joe Biden?" she tweeted. "The attack RUINED our objection that we spent weeks preparing for, which devastated our efforts on behalf of Trump and his voters."

Greene's tweet was part of a longer thread about the siege and former President Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial. It came just days after she spoke on the House floor about her long-running support of baseless conspiracy theories about QAnon, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and school shootings. Greene distanced herself from the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory and apologized for trafficking in false claims that mass shootings were staged and the Pentagon wasn't hit by a plane on 9/11.

On Thursday, House Democrats and 11 Republicans voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments after media reports detailed her previous support for executing prominent Democrats.

"They placed pipe bombs at the RNC and the DNC the night before," Greene tweeted on Tuesday, referring to the siege. "They did NOT just target one party. They targeted Republicans and Democrats. They were against the government ALL together."

  • Fact check: It's true that the rioters targeted both Democrats and Republicans. Their attack came after Trump spent months attacking both Democrats and members of the GOP whom he said he believed hadn't done enough to advocate for his baseless claim that the election was "rigged" and stolen from him.

  • At a "Save America" rally in Washington, DC, shortly before the siege, Trump told thousands of his supporters to "walk down to the Capitol" and "cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women," adding: "We're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong."

  • The president also attacked his vice president, Mike Pence, on Twitter and in public remarks, initially calling on him to block the formalization of Biden's win (which the vice president cannot do) and later saying Pence lacked "courage" when he told Trump he would not carry out his orders. During the riot, several Trump supporters were overheard saying they wanted to execute Pence by hanging him from a Capitol Hill tree.

"The Capitol attack was planned and organized, NOT incited in the moment by President Trump, and NO Republican Member was involved," Greene added in her Twitter thread. "We were ALL victims that day. And once again, Trump is the victim of the never ending hate fueled witch hunt."

  • Fact check: Lawyers representing multiple people who were charged in connection to the Capitol riot have said their clients were explicitly acting on Trump's orders. One of the defendants, Jacob Chansley, also known as the QAnon Shaman, offered to testify at Trump's impeachment trial.

Reached for comment, Nick Dyer, a spokesman for Greene said, "You are fake news. She explicitly said organizers."

  • Fact check: One of the major January 6 rallies, which preceded the Capitol riot, was organized by Ali Alexander, an organizer of the "Stop the Steal" movement. Alexander tweeted on December 30: "Everyone can guess what me and 500,000 others will do to that building ... 1776 is *always* an option." The day before the siege, Alexander led chants of "victory or death" at Freedom Plaza in Washington. He has denied inciting the riot.

  • Alexander said he coordinated with Republican Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama to organize "maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting" on the election certification on January 6.

  • Major Republican groups, including the Republican Attorneys General Association, Turning Point Action, and Tea Party Patriots, as well as Women for America First, participated and helped organize similar pro-Trump marches and rallies on January 5 and 6.

Dyer added that Greene "didn't make a declarative statement one way or another" but that she "simply asked a question."

The House of Representatives impeached Trump last month on a charge of incitement of insurrection related to the Capitol siege. His Senate trial will begin on Tuesday afternoon with a debate over the constitutionality of holding a trial in the first place, given that Trump is now out of office.

A two-thirds majority is required for the Senate to convict and remove an official from office. The Senate can then vote to bar them from ever holding public office again. Democrats have a bare majority in the upper chamber - 50 seats plus Vice President Kamala Harris' tiebreaking vote - meaning at least 17 Republicans would have to break ranks to secure a conviction for Trump. That's highly unlikely given that 45 Senate Republicans voted last month to declare the trial unconstitutional before it even began.

Read the original article on Business Insider