Takeaways from Friday’s January 6-focused hearing on the bid to disqualify Marjorie
The activists challenging her congressional candidacy argued that her statements made her a participant of an insurrection, and thus, disqualify her from future government service. They tried to connect Greene to the plans to violently interrupt Congress’ electoral vote count and to those who orchestrated the attack. But Greene denied knowledge of any scheme to disrupt the proceedings and said she didn’t know key players who organized the rally that preceded the congressional breach.
But the hearing also subjected Greene to a detailed grilling about her views on the riot, and whether she had any knowledge of the plans to disrupt Congress’ counting of the electoral votes. She fiercely rebuked any suggestions that violence was what she had in mind as she called for protests and objections to Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s win.
Greene repeatedly denied knowledge of or involvement in the violence of January 6
Greene said under oath that she had “no knowledge” of plans to disrupt Congress’ counting of the 2020 electoral votes.
She made the assertion after the challengers’ lawyer Andrew Celli asked whether — because of the oath of office she took as a member of Congress — she would have been obligated to stop or have arrested someone who was planning to interfere with the certification proceedings.
She repeated it again later on, telling the lawyer she “absolutely” did not have any prior knowledge of plans to disrupt the certification.
“I don’t know anything about that,” she said.
Asked about a Tweet on her now-suspended account promoting the plans for supporters of then-President Donald Trump to protest on Washington on the day of Congress’ certification vote, she said, “I was asking people to come for a peaceful march, which is what everyone is entitled to do under their First Amendment, but I was not asking them to actively engage in violence or any type of action.”
“All of my words never, ever mean anything for violence,” she added.
She later said she couldn’t recall whether she spoke to anyone in government about the protests planned for January 6. Nor could she remember anyone she spoke to about attending the January 6 demonstrations, according to her testimony.
Greene clung to conspiracy theories around the election and the Capitol breach
Greene said she believed that Biden had lost the election after she had repeatedly dodged questions about social media posts she published before January 6 pushing allegations of fraud and claims that Trump was the true victor of the 2020 election.
Earlier in the hearing her lawyer, James Bopp Jr., defended that the statements she made after the election as legitimate political speech.
“The question of voter fraud in the 2020 election was a, is a quintessential example of political speech, legitimate political disagreements about what happened,” Bopp said.
She clung to conspiracy theories about the Capitol assault and actively introduced some of the most sensational claims about that day.
When questioned by Celli, she said she did not know whether her FBI was behind the attack. She then name-checked a figure at the center of the fringe theories that the assault was an FBI false flag plot and said “there’s a lot of investigations that need to happen.”
She recalled, during the breach, thinking the attackers were “Antifa dressed up as Trump supporters” because “that was the first thing we were told.”
“I know they were arrested all over the country much through 2020 and over 95% of them had their charges dropped, unlike January 6 rioters that are still in jail,” she said.
Greene ran away from examples of incendiary rhetoric she has used in the past
Greene repeatedly was asked about statements and her posts on social media using incendiary rhetoric about Democratic lawmakers and other topics. She said she couldn’t recall a remarks she made, at a protest before she ran for Congress, asserting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had committed treason and that treason was “a crime punishable by death.” She said she did not know who liked from her account a Facebook post that referenced a “bullet to the head” of Pelosi, but she couldn’t saying definitively it wasn’t her.
“I am testifying: I have no idea who liked that comment.” she said, when asked to make clear it wasn’t her.
She said she didn’t recall calling for protestors to “flood” the Capitol as part of a 2019 demonstration in favor of funding a border wall, until the…
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