Charting the GOP’s drift from “legitimate political discourse” to using Jan. 6 as a punchline.
An early high water mark in the GOP’s efforts to minimize the events of Jan. 6, 2021, came in early February 2022: The Republican National Committee not only voted to censure two members who had joined the committee investigating the insurrection, it decided to insert a phrase into the censure resolution practically dripping with provocation: “legitimate political discourse.”
Supporters of the measure quickly sought to assure that the phrase didn’t refer to those who stormed the Capitol and got violent, but the resolution itself made no such distinction. And it was little mystery why: Republicans had spent the past year downplaying the events of that day and trying to rewrite a story that didn’t reflect particularly well on the party. The resolution invited those who believed this attack on the seat of government wasn’t that bad, or even that it was justified — that is, a significant portion of the GOP — to go right on believing that.
This weekend saw another such event: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) “joking” about how Jan. 6 could have turned out differently had she been in charge, while mocking those who have cast blame on her and Trump ally Stephen K. Bannon.
“I want to tell you something: If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won,” Greene said. “Not to mention, they would’ve been armed.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Jan 6th comments at Gala:
“I got to tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, it would’ve been armed.”
Reckon there would be a lot more people doing a lot more prison time if ya were ????????♂️ pic.twitter.com/Xf6Ykv5MKw
The statement carries with it all the plausible deniability that the RNC resolution did, since Greene was telling jokes onstage at an event for young Republicans in New York. The provocateur congresswoman is inviting journalists to write this up as if it were an entirely serious comment, at which point she can claim persecution — a valued commodity.
