Person with whistle disrupts GOP-led trip to see jailed Jan. 6 suspects

A person blowing a whistle disrupted Republicans who were speaking outside a Washington, D.C. jail where rioters who stormed the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection were being held on Friday. 

The whistling came as Republicans spoke outside the jail following a GOP-led trip that included members of both parties. An organization that challenges investigations into President Biden as politically motivated also protested against the GOP members. 

Hannah Muldavin, who served as the spokesperson for the House select committee that investigated the insurrection, tweeted that the Congressional Integrity Project was tied to the protest against the Republicans, many of whom have stood by former President Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. 

Muldavin said the organization played a video that the committee created showing the “awful violence” of the attack. 

“During our first summer hearing, the @January6thCmte produced a 12-minute video w/new footage that depicted the awful violence of that day. Today, as Republicans tried to whitewash & belittle what happened on Jan 6, @usintegrityorg played the video as a reminder of the truth,” she said. 

The project tweeted that a “mobile billboard” showing the footage circled the jail during the visit. 

“Our mobile billboard is circling outside of the DC jail playing footage released by the January 6th Committee while @RepMTG leads a cohort of Donald Trump’s closest election-denying MAGA allies in the House to visit the January 6th defendants and insurrectionists,” it said. 

Kyle Herrig, the executive director of the organization, told The Hill in a statement that the “MAGA” House Republicans who visited the jail are the same ones who helped incite the insurrection and a “criminal conspiracy.”

He said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other Republicans are trying to change perceptions of what happened during the insurrection.

“Kevin McCarthy, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and all the Trump-loving Republicans in Congress are trying to rewrite history and hide their involvement in the violence that took place on January 6, all to hurt President Biden and Democrats, and restore their disgraced president to the White House,” he said.

McCarthy faced criticism recently over giving thousands of hours of previously unreleased surveillance footage from the attack to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has downplayed the violence from the insurrection.

The whistling occurred as GOP congresspeople like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Byron Donalds (Fla.) spoke. 

Greene said at a press conference that what happened on Jan. 6 was not an insurrection. She said “paid protesters” were interrupting her as she spoke. 

“And they can whistle and say everything they want, but we will not be deterred. We do not care about them because they work for evil,” she said. 

Greene later tweeted that the man blowing the whistle “assaulted” everyone by blowing it as loudly as he could in people’s ears. She said the man should be arrested for his actions. 

She took the lead in organizing the visit, as she and other GOP members of Congress have been vocal about conditions inside the jail. They have also questioned why many defendants are being held without bail. 

Three dozen Jan. 6 defendants requested last year that they be transferred to Guantanamo Bay because of the conditions in the jail. They mentioned mold and worms in the walls and food and alleged abuse from guards.