Former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon wouldn't directly comment on the House vote to hold him in contempt Thursday, say...
Former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon wouldn't directly comment on the House vote to hold him in contempt Thursday, saying he's been 'sworn to silence' by his lawyers – although he invited Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on his podcast where she called the Jan. 6th probe a 'witch hunt.'
'Don't make me get the lawyers involved here,' Bannon said when the topic came up on his 'War Room Pandemic' podcast, after the House voted 229-202 to hold him in contempt – setting up a legal clash if the Justice Department decides to prosecute.
But Greene, a Georgia Republican, made the case for him. She blasted the select House committee that demanded he appear as 'fake,' and defended his failure to comply with it. She also bashed Reps. Liz Cheney, Jamie Raskin, and Adam Schiff, confirming Raskin's account that she 'yelled at them' on the House floor.
'Here they are celebrating voting to hold an innocent American in contempt because you didn't go answer the subpoena and show up to their to their fake committee that isn't even constitutional,' she told Bannon.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) got into a heated exchange with Rep. Liz Cheney on the House floor during a vote to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress. She is seen here with Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida
'So I yell at them on the House floor I let I let Liz Cheney have it. I let Adam Schiff have it and I let Raskin have it. I just – I couldn't contain myself and I said, "You people are a joke, you don't care about the American people, you don't care about what the American people went through with BLM riots all over America – burning cities to the ground, burning businesses looting, all the crime committed,"' she said.
After the vote happened, 'When it was over I was standing in the well on the House floor, and I had just had it listening to them lie over and over again – accusing you of organizing the January 6 riot. You had nothing to do with it. You weren't even there, You didn't cause it you did not plan it and everyone knows the truth about that, but they completely lied about you they lied about President Trump and I was disgusted and furious.
Cheney, a Republican and a vice chair of the Jan. 6th committee, has focused in on Bannon, including his Jan. 5th prediction that 'all hell is going to break loose tomorrow,' and demanded he testify about what he knows.
Newsweek flagged Bannon's comment about his lawyers.
Greene's account of the angry clash with Cheney and Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, comports with what Raskin said – although it left out a cutting remark by Cheney.
According to Raskin, another panel member who testified in favor of holding Bannon in contempt, it all got started when he was speaking to Cheney on the floor of the House.
He said Greene, who was kicked off her congressional committees after the House voted to sanction her for her comments supporting QAnon and other statements, approached the pair and started 'screaming' at them, said Raskin.
'Well, I was just talking to Miss Cheney. And then she started screaming at us saying: "When are you going to start investigating murders over the summer and BLM?" he recounted to reporters.
'I said, Oh, like when Kyle Rittenhouse went and killed two people at the BLM protest? said Raskin. Rittenhouse shot and killed two protesters at Wisconsin George Floyd protests last summer.
'And she said, "Why don't you represent the American people? And I said, We represent the American people. In fact, the vast majority of American people,' Raskin recounted.
'And then she started screaming, I don't know. She starts screaming at Liz.'
He said he couldn't remember exactly how Cheney responded, but 'they got into a back and forth about Jewish space lasers.'
That was a reference to the lawmaker's 2018 tweet that touted a conspiracy theory that California forest fires were caused by Pacific GAs & Electric, which she linked to the Rothschilds, Democrats, and space solar generators that 'collect the sun's energy and then beam it back to earth.' She wrote there were 'too many coincidences to ignore.'
The Georgia Republican started 'screaming' at Cheney (pictured) and Rep. Jamie Raskin, according to Raskin
Raskin serves on the Jan. 6th select committee
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., attend the House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing of the United States Department of Justice
The Georgia Republican defended herself from that characterization.
'She was saying I never said that. That was made up by the media that was made up.'
Pressed on whether the outspoken Trump loyalist shouted first, Raskin responded: 'Oh, she shouted us.'
One source familiar with the conversation said Marjorie Taylor Greene said Cheney was a joke, prompting the vice president's daughter to respond that Greene was a joke – then asking sarcastically 'if she needed to be focusing on her anti-Semitic space lasers.'
DailyMail.com has reached out to Cheney and Greene's office for comment.
Gaetz and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) testified at the Rules Committee in opposition to the resolution voted on by the House. Jordan said the Jan. 6th committee, created to probe the Capitol riot, should be probing violence at Black Lives Matter protests over the summer.
Nine Republicans including Cheney voted to hold Bannon in contempt of Congress
Steve Bannon
The tense conversation took place when the House voted 229-202 to hold Bannon in contempt.
Cheney was one of nine Republicans who backed the measure. The Jan. 6th subpoenaed Bannon and is demanding he appear to answer questions about the 'Stop the Steal' rally.
Cheney ripped into Bannon at a Jan. 6th committee hearing, saying 'it appears that Mr. Bannon had substantial advance knowledge of the plans for January 6th and likely had an important role in formulating those plans.'
'The day before this all occurred — on January 5th — Mr. Bannon publicly professed knowledge that '(a)ll hell is going to break loose tomorrow,' she said.
Bannon through his lawyer has said he will not respond to the subpoena while Trump is asserting executive privilege.
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