In completely unsurprising news, an “amazing” friend of Marjorie Taylor Greene is now confirmed to have been part of the group of insurrectionists that stormed the Capitol in January.
Anthony Aguero is a pro-Trump livestreamer, anti-immigration activist, one-time spokesperson for the border militia the United Constitutional Patriots, and a former Congressional hopeful who has a history of DUI arrests. In a video he posted on January 7, Aguero himself had claimed he was inside the Capitol during the attempted coup. “We were all there. It was not Antifa and it was not BLM. It was Trump supporters that did that yesterday. I’m the first to admit it, being one myself,” he said, adding, “I walked amongst all those people.”
But Aguero later appeared to regret what he posted to his social media accounts, telling CNN that some of the other videos he uploaded were “not mine” and “screen recorded from other posts” that he saw. Aguero also told CNN he was merely there as an “independent journalist” and deleted a video in which he claimed he “was able to make it inside the chambers.”
But the videos that CNN uncovered confirm that not only was Aguero there at the Capitol, his excuse is obviously a transparent lie. Via CNN:
Aguero, however, appears to have never uploaded any footage he took inside the Capitol to Facebook or Instagram. And in videos previously reported on by CNN, he can be heard chanting “heave ho” as rioters were attempting to break in on the West Side of the Capitol. In a comment, Aguero wrote “MAGA” under the video. Later, Aguero can be heard chanting “our house” among the Capitol mob on the East Side of the building.
Oops.
As for his friendship with Greene, it appears they met through the MAGA muck they both swam in. According to CNN, Greene and Aguero “have worked closely together over the years on causes such as immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border wall and have attended pro-Trump rallies together.” In deleted videos, Greene has called Aguergo “amazing” as well as a “friend.”
At the end of February, when Aguero’s involvement in the Capitol insurrection was first reported, Greene swiftly downplayed their relationship, telling CNN that the two haven’t spoken “much lately at all” and that she “didn’t know he was in the Capitol.” But the two were spending time together as recently as last November. In a photo Aguero uploaded to Instagram that month, Aguero and Greene can be posing next to each other and smiling together in a crowd. “I’m proud and honored to be friends with such great people,” Aguero wrote in the caption, before congratulating Greene on entering Congress.
Their friendship dates back to at least the beginning of 2019, according to a review of Aguero’s social media accounts. The two are also seen together in another photo that Aguero uploaded to Instagram in November 2019, taken apparently in Washington, D.C.; another in October 2019, apparently in Austin, Texas; and a photo from a rally to support the border wall in D.C., posted in February 2019, which features Greene standing at the front of the rally next to Aguero. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Greene and Aguero, along with other members of the far-right, worked together to host and promote the rally.
Sounds like a pretty close friendship united by shared political values to me!