MAGA WHINING: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Jan 6th prisoner visit gets a Democratic rebuttal
Inmates awaiting trial in January 6th cases, housed in the D.C. jail, aren’t suffering in squalid, untenable conditions like Marjorie Taylor Greene and the rest of the House pro-insurrection caucus would have you believe, explains one Democrat who joined the party’s recent trip.
In fact, she’d like Americans across the country to consider why some elected officials only care now that the people incarcerated are right-wing and predominantly white.
Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) says she joined Greene and others on their ‘audit’ trip to the D.C. jail in order to make sure there would be at least one observer from the House of Representatives who was willing to tell the truth.
She says that she notices the J6 defender bloc didn’t have anything to say before, although Black and Brown inmates (who are disproportionately arrested and jailed) awaiting trial across the country have suffered far worse than the defendants in the Capitol attack.
Greene has argued that the individuals charged with destruction of government property, assaulting police officers, and bringing deadly weapons into the Capitol are being treated badly, complaining about the food, the small cells, and smells including marijuana and toilet paper inmates lit on fire using their cell lights.
She also talked about inmates holding book club meetings and their own religious services.
Crockett agrees that there are systemic problems with prisons and jails across the country, but suggests that it’s disingenuous for MAGA Republicans to pretend this is a political attack on Trump supporters when in truth, they have access to a long list of amenities that her former clients (as a civil rights attorney) could not access, even when their alleged crimes were far less serious.
She describes programs including art therapy and yoga and notes that the inmates are given tablets with educational programs and access to make phone calls to family members, noting that her own clients struggled with fear that any call might be recorded.
“Anyone who’s ever had a loved one incarcerated understands, this is not the norm. I don’t know what world Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and the rest of them are living in…there’s all kinds of stuff that I have never seen, and I’ve been practicing law for almost two decades,” Crockett said.
In two clips below, as well as Crockett’s own tweet, you’ll see her share some of the specific concerns she had, including women’s access to sanitary products (free in the D.C. jail; sold at a charge in many prisons), medical care (also free, also not free in many prisons across the U.S.), access to private and unrecorded phone calls, air conditioning (lacking, she says, in some Texas prisons), and freedom of movement.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s contrasting MAGA-friendly report can be seen here.
Crockett isn’t denying that being imprisoned is no spa stay — she says that it’s necessary, though, to recognize the difference between unpleasantness and “truly inhumane” conditions.
It’s important we don’t conflate their less than 5 star stay w/ the truly inhumane conditions that mostly black & brown folk have suffered through for decades.
— Jasmine Crockett (@JasmineForUS) March 24, 2023
Crockett on Jan 6 Defendant Conditions: This is not the norm. Even in the women’s area, art therapy, yoga, acupuncture. These are things that we can't even find for my people that aren't incarcerated.. There are two types of tablets. They’ve got a barbershop. pic.twitter.com/HnZ1dO7I7Q
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 25, 2023
Rep. @JasmineForUS, who attended lawmakers' visit to Jan. 6 defendants on Friday: "This was an excuse for Marjorie Taylor Greene to have another press conference." #TheReidOut pic.twitter.com/YWiKPDTvBI
— The ReidOut (@thereidout) March 24, 2023
Steph Bazzle covers politics and theocracy, always aiming for a world free from extremism and authoritarianism. Follow Steph on Twitter @imjustasteph.
