Two of the biggest promoters of former President Donald Trump's lies that the 2020 election was "stolen" from him—Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia—have worked tirelessly to downplay the Republican party's role in the January 6 insurrection, which their election conspiracies incited.
In the year since the mob of pro-Trump extremists stormed the United States Capitol, Republican lawmakers and media personalities have scrambled to downplay the severity of the deadly riot, likening the insurrectionists to tourists and insisting the attack was nonviolent.
But Greene and Gaetz have taken this a step further by repeatedly suggesting the riots were somehow instigated by intelligence officials working to discredit the Republican party. And in the hours after the attack, both representatives voted against certifying the votes of swing states Trump lost.
In an interview with far-right former Trump official Steve Bannon, both Gaetz and Greene insisted they were proud of the work they did to undermine the election on January 6.
Watch below.
Rep. Matt Gaetz: “We’re ashamed of nothing. We’re proud of the work we did on January 6th and we’re actually going to walk the grounds that patriotic Americans walked from the White House to the Capitol.”pic.twitter.com/UGVif2pW5F
— Eugene Daniels (@EugeneDaniels2) January 6, 2022
Gaetz told Bannon:
"We're ashamed of nothing. We're proud of the work we did on January 6 to make legitimate arguments about election integrity."
Shortly after, the pair proceeded to the Capitol where they held a press conference baselessly accusing the FBI of deliberately inciting the riots.
Their positions were widely decried on social media.
Traitors. All of them. Empty immoral shells that should be in jail and not Congress. https://t.co/toKTWhah7f
— Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) January 6, 2022
All aboard the Treason Trolley 🚎 https://t.co/SXjnGgpTtN pic.twitter.com/Z2hyZSWGWv
— MaliceInBlunderland (@MissSkrewt) January 6, 2022
"We're ashamed of nothing because we have no shame." https://t.co/qimJsm6XwS
— Harry Turtledove (@HNTurtledove) January 6, 2022
The insurrectionists regret nothing and will try it again. https://t.co/BXZOtQUwni
— Roy Edroso (@edroso) January 6, 2022
Traitors and should be treated as such. https://t.co/n0PmjJugkE pic.twitter.com/HiESX6LVHH
— mary lee (@iamsugargate) January 6, 2022
I joked this morning that Jan 6 would be a national holiday by the end of the decade but what you may not have realized is that I was also 100% serious.
These people are coming back into power in 2024 and they are big on inflating hollow gestures with grand portent. https://t.co/2TkOqOiOlF
— other (@mykola) January 6, 2022
The overall Republican response to the insurrection has been condemned as well.
In the 1 year since the Jan 6 insurrection, GOP has introduced 550+ bills to restrict the vote for Black & brown Americans & 0 bills to hold the white supremacist insurrectionists accountable. It was never about protecting democracy—it was always about protecting white supremacy.
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) January 6, 2022
We can’t sugarcoat what’s happened to the GOP base. On January 6 when when Mike Pence stood for the rule of law and the Constitution, millions of Republicans rejected Pence, not Trump, the man who tried to engineer a coup. Pence’s approval rating plunged. https://t.co/7Yqki48GPF
— David French (@DavidAFrench) January 6, 2022
A (sad) sign of the times: Even when I read articles by Republicans condemning the events of January 6 (and there aren't many of those), they barely mention Trump's name to avoid antagonizing his cult followers. GOP has learned you can't attack Trump by name without blowback.
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) January 6, 2022
The sole Republican representative to show up on the House floor to commemorate the attack was Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
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