White House press secretary Jen Psaki criticized Republican lawmakers for perceived “inaction” on the “big lie” that the 2020 election was rigged in President Joe Biden’s favor.
Psaki’s comments, which came at Tuesday’s White House press briefing, come just two days before Biden will deliver remarks on the one-year anniversary of the Capitol riot.
“We have conveyed our concern in the past about the fact that many Republican members of Congress have stood by the ‘big lie’ since then,” she said in response to a question about the Jan. 6 select committee’s investigation into the riot’s origins. “They were outraged at the time, many of them, about the events that happened on Jan. 6. Who could not be who was watching then?
Psaki claimed that in the following months, those Republicans “have done nothing to help support the work of the committee, to help argue against the big lie, and, you know, that sort of lack of action, inaction, silence is something that is irresponsible as well.”
Earlier in the briefing, Psaki claimed that “Trump’s role in subverting our Constitution, attempting to block the peaceful transfer of power, and defending a mob that attacked our Capitol and law enforcement has been well-documented.”
“It’s something obviously the president spoke about in terms of that being one of the worst days in our democracy,” she explained while previewing Biden’s upcoming speech. “He’ll speak to the historical significance of January 6, what it means for the country one year later, the importance of the peaceful transfer of power, which, obviously, the prior administration and the prior president weren’t a part of, but I think there’s a larger message here to the country about who we are and who we need to be moving forward.”
