A Democratic lawmaker – and former U.S. Army Ranger – pushed back strongly against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's claim that only Republicans stayed in the House chamber Jan. 6 to defend against rioters.
The Georgia Republican will publish a new book, MTG, next week, and The Guardian obtained a copy and published excerpts showing Greene claims Democrats were "hysterical" and fled the chamber after rioters – whom she has defended as "political prisoners" after their arrests – breached the U.S. Capitol.
“Several of the Republican congressmen said, ‘We’re going to stay right here and defend the House chamber,'" Greene's book claims. "As they began barricading the door with furniture, I noticed not one Democrat was willing to stay to defend the chamber.”
However, that account starkly contrasts with the descriptions given by Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) and other Democrats shortly after Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to prevent the certification of Joe Biden's election win.
“They evacuated the folks on the floor but those of us in the gallery actually got trapped for like 20 minutes as the rioters stormed the stairwells and the doors," said Crow, a former Army Ranger and Bronze Star recipient, on the day of the insurrection. “So, Capitol police actually locked the doors of the chamber and started piling furniture up on the doors to barricade them, while holding their guns out."
"I got into Ranger mode a little bit," he added. "Most of the members didn’t know how to use the emergency masks, so I was helping them get their emergency masks out of the bags and helped instruct a bunch of folks on how to put it on and how to use it. I wasn’t going to leave the House floor until every member was gone, so I waited until we were able to get everybody out.”
Photos taken during the riot back Crow's version of events, and on Wednesday he strongly disputed Greene's recollection.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t exist in the same reality as the rest of us," Crow told The Guardian. "For those of us who were there on Jan. 6 and actually defended the chamber from violent insurrectionists, her view is patently false. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
