Marjorie Taylor Greene Swears She Was Only Joking When She Said She Would Have “Won” January 6

As you’ve probably heard by now, this past weekend, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the de facto leader of the House GOP, declared at a right-wing gala that if she and Steve Bannon had organized the January 6 attack on the Capitol, the mob would have (1) “been armed” and (2) “won” the insurrection, the goal of which was to illegally install Donald Trump for a second term. Given the extremely antidemocratic nature of the violent riot and the fact that, despite ultimately being unsuccessful, it left several people dead and more than 100 members of law enforcement injured, Greene’s remarks have not gone over very well. The White House has called her comments “dangerous, abhorrent,” and a “slap in the face to 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.” So, naturally, the congresswoman from Georgia is now insisting that she was totally kidding.

“The White House needs to learn how sarcasm works,” Greene said Monday, in a statement no serious person actually believes. “My comments were making fun of Joe Biden and the Democrats, who have continuously made me a political target since January 6th.” She did not address the fact that, one day prior to the insurrection, she proclaimed, “This is our 1776 moment,” or that she had suggested Trump could declare martial law to stay in power, or that a close ally of hers was among the group that broke into the Capitol. Greene has also regularly downplayed the attack; in June 2021, she voted against legislation awarding Congressional Gold Medals to the police officers that protected lawmakers and the Capitol, and objected to calling what happened “an insurrection.”

Greene, of course, has regularly engaged in the sort of deeply violent rhetoric that has caused people to cough into their hands while yelling “bullshit” re: her “sarcasm” claims. That rhetoric has included calling for Nancy Pelosi to be executed and likening Democrats to feral hogs that need to be shot on sight.

Another reason literally no one believes she was simply being sarcastic when she said she would have “won” January 6? The fact that the line was delivered to a crowd that reportedly included “far-right influencers, white nationalists, neo-fascist activists, and extremist European figures,” who presumably believe the attack on the Capitol was entirely justified. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, New York Young Republicans Club president Gavin Wax, who hosted the event, told the audience, which the SPLC said included Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, and one of the main promoters of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory: “We want to cross the Rubicon. We want total war. We must be prepared to do battle in every arena. In the media. In the courtroom. At the ballot box. And in the streets.”

In denouncing Greene’s comments, the White House said, “All leaders have a responsibility to condemn these dangerous, abhorrent remarks and stand up for our Constitution and the rule of law.” Not surprisingly, it appears that virtually no members of the Republican Party have done so.

Question: Is Elon Musk a truly terrible person?

Answer: Yes, yes he is. Per The Washington Post:

Elon Musk escalated his battle of words with previous managers of Twitter into risky new territory over the weekend, allying himself with far-right crusaders against a purported epidemic of child sex abuse and implying that the company’s former head of trust and safety had a permissive view of sexual activity by minors. Musk told more than 30,000 listeners in a live Twitter Spaces audio session Friday night that he recently discovered that child sex abuse material was a severe problem on Twitter and that fighting it would be his top priority. In follow-up tweets Saturday, he misrepresented a section of a graduate thesis from recently departed safety chief Yoel Roth. “Looks like Yoel is arguing in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services in his PhD thesis,” he wrote.

The attached snippet instead showed Roth suggesting that since teenagers were accessing apps and websites that they were not supposed to use, as they always have, those services should consider offering toned-down content alongside adult fare. Musk also commented on an old tweet in which Roth wrote, “Can high school students ever meaningfully consent to sex with their teachers?” Roth did not answer his own question, merely linking to an article about a Washington state supreme court ruling that found a teacher could be convicted of a crime for having sex with a student who was over the age of 18. The age of consent in Washington is 16, but a majority of the court ruled that Washington state lawmakers intended to criminalize teacher-student sexual contact for all students, even those over 18. Twenty-one is the age limit for high school in the state.

“This explains a lot,” Musk conspiratorially tweeted to his 100 million-plus followers, as though he’d uncovered something. Roth’s two-year-old tweet subsequently drew replies calling for him to be thrown in prison. According to CNN, Roth has had to flee his home.