Marjorie Taylor Greene Reaches for Trump Playbook to Cover January 6 Remark

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has said her claim that those storming Congress on January 6, 2021, would have "won" if she and Steve Bannon had organized it was "sarcasm," a line previously used by Donald Trump to justify a number of controversial remarks.

On Saturday, the Georgia Republican addressed claims that she and Bannon, formerly Trump's chief White House strategist, were involved in planning the disorder. "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," she said.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates condemned Greene's remark on Monday, describing it as "a slap in the face to the Capitol Police." He commented: "It goes against our fundamental values as a country for a Member of Congress to wish that the carnage of January 6th had been even worse, and to boast that she would have succeeded in an armed insurrection against the United States government."

In response, Greene said her comment was intended as "sarcasm" and accused political opponents of character assassination. "The White House needs to learn how sarcasm works. My comments were making fun of Joe Biden and the Democrats, who have continuously made me a political target since January 6th," she said in a statement.

"Every day, I receive violent threats against my life simply because Democrats & the media have lied and smeared my character for the past 2 years. Including threats resulting in actual arrests with criminal charges & threats against my home in an attempt to have me killed."

Greene's claim that her original comments were intended to be sarcastic mirrors a response often used by former President Donald Trump—who Greene enthusiastically supports—when faced with a public uproar over controversial remarks he had made.

Early in the coronavirus pandemic, in April 2020, Trump controversially suggested people could be injected with disinfectant to combat coronavirus, a procedure medical experts said would be extremely dangerous. Speaking at a press conference, he commented: "And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute.

"And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that."

When challenged by reporters about his comments later that month, Trump said: "I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen."

This was challenged by a CNN fact check, which concluded there was "simply no indication" that Trump "was being anything less than serious."

In 2014 he compared then President Barack Obama's polling numbers to those of the "late, great" President Jimmy Carter, despite Carter still being alive.

Trump later tweeted: "Of course I don't think Jimmy Carter is dead—saw him today on T.V. Just being sarcastic, but never thought he was alive as President, stiff!"

In July 2016, Trump, then running for the White House, told reporters he "hopes" Russian authorities had access to his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's private emails.

It came after embarrassing emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee email system, allegedly by Russian intelligence, were published by WikiLeaks earlier that month.

Challenged about his comment on Fox & Friends the following day, Trump replied: "I'm being sarcastic."

The following month, he described Obama and Hillary Clinton as "the founders of ISIS" during an address to the National Association of Home Builders.

Later in August Trump told a rally of supporters in Pennsylvania he was being "sarcastic" when he made the remark, though he added "not that sarcastic, to be honest with you."

Speaking to Newsweek, Ion Meyn, an assistant law professor at the University of Wisconsin, said Greene's comments would fall under "protected speech," meaning she is unlikely to face any police action in response.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has been contacted for comment.

Hundreds of Trump supporters broke into Congress on January 6, 2021, in an unsuccessful bid to stop the 2020 presidential election result being certified. In the ensuing violence, Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Trump backer, was shot dead while dozens of police officers were injured.

Contrary to the implication in Greene's remark, some of those involved in the January 6 unrest were armed.

Writing for Newsweek earlier this year, Nick Suplina and Justin Wagner, from Everytown for Gun Safety, said they had identified "12 individuals allegedly tied to the events of Jan. 6 who were arrested in Washington, D.C., and charged with firearms offenses."