- Greene tore into her own party for not doing enough to help those arrested for their participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
- “The media smeared his image and vilified him around the world,” Greene said of Jacob Chansley
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday posted a photo of herself with “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley as she bashed the “weak Republican establishment.”
The Georgia Republican ripped into her own party for not doing enough to help those arrested for their participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
“I was honored to meet Jake Chansley this weekend, and I want to explain why I say honored,” she wrote on X, posting a photo with Chansley, apparently taken at the Turning Point USA conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
“The entire country knows Jake as the face of the January 6 'Insurrection' because the media smeared his image and vilified him around the world, the Biden regime's DOJ wrongly prosecuted him for innocently and non-violently passing through the capital was running, and he was then treated horribly in prisons and even held in solitary confinement for more than ten months, like many other J6 members.'
She continued, “But when I spoke to Jake, he was remarkably positive, happy, forgiving and determined.”
Greene with Chansley at the Turning Point USA conference in Phoenix
Greene also said she is “perpetually angry” with the Republican conference in Congress for not interfering in the Jan. 6 matters “while the federal government continues to tyrannically destroy their lives.”
Last month, Chansley, the spear-wielding rioter whose horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint made him one of the most recognizable figures during the Capitol Riot, said he was interested in running for Congress.
The 35-year-old filed a declaration of interest last month indicating his intention to run for the seat left vacant by the retirement of Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz.
Chansley pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing official proceedings in connection with the Capitol riot.
During his trial, Chansley was described by prosecutors as “the public face of the Capitol insurrection.”
Being shirtless and wearing a horned headdress set him apart from other rioters who stormed the Capitol.
He was sentenced to 41 months in prison in November 2021 and served about 15 months before being transferred to a halfway house in Phoenix in March 2023.
He was released two months later, in May. Chansley grew up in the greater Phoenix area.
“Beyond the hat and the face paint, there is a person, an American, who has been wronged by the Democratic mouthpiece media, the Democratic administration, and who has defrauded the weak Republican establishment, and I was honored to meet Jake because he seems like a better person to be all together,” Greene said of Chansley.
“Jake is still the face of January 6, but I think that now is because he has a spirit of perseverance in the face of persecution.”