U.S. lawmaker Greene's Jan. 6 remarks a 'slap in the face' to police: White House

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., at a rally at Dayton International Airport in Vandalia, Ohio, on Nov. 7, 2022. (Michael Conroy / AP)

WASHINGTON -

The White House on Monday condemned the rhetoric of Republican U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said recently that if she had been in charge of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol it would have succeeded and the attackers would have been armed.

"It is antithetical to our values as a country for a member of Congress to wish that the carnage of Jan. 6 had been even worse, and to brag that they would have succeeded in an armed insurrection against the United States government," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

"Violent rhetoric like this is a slap in the face of the Capitol Police, the DC Metropolitan Police, the National Guard and the families who lost loved ones as a result of the attack on the Capitol," Jean-Pierre said.

Greene joked about the Jan. 6 attacks, which resulted in five deaths and over 100 police officers injured, over the weekend in a speech to a gala of the New York Young Republicans Club on Park Avenue in Manhattan.

"January 6 happened, and next thing you know, I organized the whole thing, along with Steve Bannon here. And I will tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, it would’ve been armed," Greene said, referring to the one-time adviser to former U.S. President Donald Trump.

She also added: "See that's the whole joke, isn't it? They say that whole thing was planned and I'm like, are you kidding me? A bunch of conservatives, Second Amendment supporters, went in the Capitol without guns, and they think that we organized that? I don't think so."

Greene in a statement to CNN on Monday said she was being sarcastic and denied any involvement in the Jan. 6 attack. Greene invited people on Twitter to attend the Jan. 6 event before it happened.

Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Kanishka Singh and Steve Holland; Editing by Mark Porter, Heather Timmons and Marguerita Choy