Several Republicans who partook in the GOP’s political stunt at the border earlier this week got chummy with a far-right activist who livestreamed himself breaking into the Capitol with the rest of the pro-Trump mob on January 6.
The activist, Anthony Aguero, who is also a friend of far-right troll Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), did a livestream at the GOP lawmakers’ visit to the border at La Joya, Texas on Tuesday, during which he chatted with the motley crew of Greene’s equally strident peers, including Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Madison Cawthorn (R-NC).
The livestream also showed Aguero speaking with Michael Cloud (R-TX), John Rose (R-TN), Mary Miller (R-IL), Tom Tiffany (R-WI), Chris Jacobs (R-NY) and Ronny Jackson (R-TX), the former White House physician-turned-far-right member of Congress.
CNN, which was the first to report on the Republicans’ interactions with Aguero, noted that the Capitol insurrectionist was already at the site when the lawmakers arrived and it is unclear how he joined them.
A spokesperson for the Republican Study Committee, the caucus that organized the border trip, claimed in an interview with CNN that it was “purely incidental” that Aguero was there and that the committee was “unaware of his identity and whereabouts on January 6.”
“He did not travel with our group to the border,” the spokesperson, Buckley Carlson, told CNN.
Aguero has not been charged or arrested for his participation in the Capitol siege. After CNN reported on his friendship with Greene in February, the Georgia Republican told Newsmax that she hadn’t spoken to Aguero “much lately at all.”
“I hope he wasn’t involved,” she said at the time. “No one should have broken in the Capitol on January 6th. They committed a crime by doing so, and I was a victim of that crime. I was in the chamber. I was being attacked as well.”