In her upcoming book MTG, Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene continues her distinct narrative about the January 6 insurrection, as per excerpts scrutinized by The Guardian.
Greene alleged that during the attack no Democrats stayed behind to protect the House chamber while Republicans took the initiative to barricade the doors. She singled out New York Representative Jerry Nadler, mocking his inability to swiftly move to safety during the chaotic event when he was 73 years old.
Greene wrote:
“Several of the Republican congressmen said, ‘We’re going to stay right here and defend the House chamber.’ As they began barricading the door with furniture, I noticed not one Democrat was willing to stay to defend the chamber.” ...
[On Nadler]: “I saw that it was a problem that so many of our representatives were older and physically unable to run. How do you get them to safety when they cannot move quickly because of age, physical ailments or lack of physical fitness?"
Greene also mocked Democrats for wearing gas masks during the assault, recalling that she declined to wear them herself. She said many Democrats "obligingly put theirs on and some were lying on the floor, hysterical."
Contrary to Greene's assertions, multiple accounts and images from lawmakers contradict her narrative. Approximately three dozen Democrats, including Colorado Representative Jason Crow, were trapped in the House gallery for an hour amid the violent mob's breach, aiding in evacuation efforts.
It's worth pointing out that shortly after the attack Crow shared the following account with The Denver Post:
“They evacuated the folks on the floor but those of us in the gallery actually got trapped for like 20 minutes as the rioters stormed the stairwells and the doors. So, Capitol police actually locked the doors of the chamber and started piling furniture up on the doors to barricade them, while holding their guns out."
“I got into ranger mode a little bit. Most of the members didn’t know how to use the emergency masks, so I was helping them get their emergency masks out of the bags and helped instruct a bunch of folks on how to put it on and how to use it."
"I wasn’t going to leave the House floor until every member was gone, so I waited until we were able to get everybody out.”
Similarly, Arizona Representative Raúl Grijalva's account to Business Insider after the attack also contradicts Greene's narrative. He recalled seeing "members doing their part to facilitate our evacuation," acknowledging the efforts of Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton and others "who assumed a role of helping us to get out of there and working with the Capitol police to make sure that we were all safe.”
Crow himself refuted Greene's claims in a response to The Guardian, stating they were blatantly false and that she exists in a different reality:
“Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t exist in the same reality as the rest of us. For those of us who were there on January 6 and actually defended the chamber from violent insurrectionists, her view is patently false. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
Many have called out Greene for overtly lying and misrepresenting the actions of her Democratic colleagues during the attack.
Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Greene and her fellow Republicans have attempted to paint the attack as a peaceful gathering of law-abiding citizens. In reality, the attack left at least five people dead and resulted in over 100 injuries to law enforcement as well as millions of dollars in damages.
This week, she came under fire for an inaccurate reference to the attack as a "three-hour event" that occurred "nearly four years ago," a significant chronological discrepancy.
Greene also described the Capitol intruders as "innocent grandmothers and veterans" who merely walked through the building, drawing attention and criticism on social media platforms.
