White House: MTG's comments on Jan. 6 a "slap in the face"

The White House on Monday sharply rebuked comments made by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) over the weekend after she said that the insurrectionists would have "won" if she'd helped organize the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Driving the news: Speaking at a dinner organized by the New York Young Republican Club on Saturday night, Greene pushed back at claims that she had helped organize the Capitol riot.

• "See, that's the whole joke, isn't it? They say that whole thing was planned and I'm like, are you kidding me? A bunch of conservatives, second amendment supporters, went in the Capitol without guns, and they think that we organized that? I don't think so," Greene told the audience, the Guardian reported.
• "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 added.

What they're saying: "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," White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.

• "This violent rhetoric is 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," Bates added.
• "All leaders have a responsibility to condemn these dangerous, abhorrent remarks and stand up for our Constitution and the rule of law.”

The other side: Greene hit back in a statement later Monday, saying that 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, claiming that "Democrats and the media have lied and smeared my character for the past two years."
• "I will never back down from my support of the Second Amendment. And I will never allow the White House, Democrats, or the media to continue to accuse me of something I had nothing to do with."