ALBANY — New York’s top Democratic playmaker came out swinging Monday against a GOP organization for hosting controversial conservative Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, at a gala where she joked about the militant protest on Jan. 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol
Jay Jacobs, chairman of the New York Democratic Party, contended the comments by Greene amounted to “sedition,” citing the fact she said she would have been armed had she organized the protest waged by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Greene was a keynote speaker over the weekend at a Manhattan event organized by the New York Young Republican Club, a group that has been effective at raising cash for campaigns, though it has also bruised some GOP politicians by injecting itself into primary election fights.
Among those in attendance were former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr. and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani
Taylor drew applause when she referred to the January 6 controversy. derisively rejecting claims that “I organized the whole thing, along with Steve Bannon.”
Greene, according to a video clip posted online, went on to say: “I will tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I organized that, we would have won; not to mention, it would’ve been armed.”
The Biden administration also lashed out at the congresswoman.
“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,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said.
But Greene insisted she was only engaging in “sarcasm.”
The president of the New York Young Republican Club, Gavin Wax, fired back at Jacobs, maintaining the Democratic boss is “trying to deflect attention from his own internal issues and problems within his party. He has nothing to brag about. I mean, he almost turned this very blue state red pretty much single-handedly, through his own incompetence as party chair.”
Since the November election when the GOP picked up both congressional and legislative seats and ran a gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Lee Zeldin, who came within 5.6 percentage points of being elected, Jacobs has been under fire from some progressive Democrats. They have urged Gov. Kathy Hochul to replace him.
Hochul, though, has stuck by Jacobs, as she did last year when he refused to support the winner of the Buffalo Democratic Party primary for mayor, India Walton, a socialist. Jacobs then explained he would be similarly reluctant to back David Duke, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, in a hypothetical scenario involving Duke winning a New York Democratic primary.
Jacobs, meanwhile, is organizing a fundraiser honoring Hochul on Jan. 5. What the invitation states will be a black-tie affair will be held four days before Hochul presents her State of the State speech in the Assembly chamber.
Last year, after Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, announced she was entering the Democratic primary for governor, Jacobs said he was concerned a primary race for the office could potentially pave the way to a GOP victory. James ended up calling off the campaign, and was re-elected last month as attorney general.
In reacting to Greene’s remarks, Jacobs also ripped into Congressman-elect George Santos, a New York CIty Republican and first openly-gay non-incumbent Republican elected to the House of Representatives and the first Brazilian-American elected to Congress.
“Santos, who once bragged about paying the legal fees for January 6th insurgents, must immediately and forcefully denounce and reject the seditious statements voiced by Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Jacobs said in a statement, adding: “Failing to act here would be to implicitly condone sedition.”
Santos was knocked on Twitter by lame duck Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-NY, for associating with “known anti-semites” at the event. Santos later retweeted a comment that defended him and pointed out that Santos is Jewish and was a supporter of Zeldin, who is also Jewish.
In a statement, the New York Young Republican Club said it is encouraging the public to watch videos of the event, noting they will be posted on its web site in coming days.
“We have confidence that they, unlike humorless, paid-off Deep State lackeys and media creeps, will understand the full context of Congresswoman Greene’s statements,” the club said in its statement.
The New York club and Greene have both endorsed Trump’s campaign to be returned to the White House in 2024.