A high-profile member of the far-right Proud Boys who yelled ‘Nancy come out and play’ during the January 6 attack on the US Capitol building has called the riots ‘nothing more than a glorified tour’.
Gabriel Garcia, 40, was formally charged with two federal felonies and four misdemeanors this week relating to disorderly conduct and trespassing from the US Capitol attacks.
Former US Army captain Garcia has pleaded not guilty to all charges, saying he couldn’t have been trespassing because no-one tried to stop him entering the building, and he didn’t wander outside of the ‘red velvet lines’.
Garcia, who once lost a bid for the Florida House of Representatives, said the riots which saw five people killed including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick were just a ‘glorified tour’.
‘It’s most the expensive tour of my life I can tell you that, but yes, a glorified tour,’ Garcia told the Miami Herald.
‘Believe it or not, wherever there was red velvet lines or any of that, I stayed there. I didn’t wander off. My intentions were never to go into anyone’s office, destroy anything.’
Gabriel Garcia is seen in a campaign photo when unsuccessfully ran for Republican House District 116 in 2020. Gabriel Garcia, a prominent Miami member of the far right group Proud Boys, is charged with storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 along with hundreds of other
During the chaos, which he streamed live on Facebook, saying it was ‘about to get ugly,’ yelling ‘traitors’ and ‘Nancy come out and play’
Garcia told the Herald he had arrived late to the riots, and had not been involved in any of the violence. He says police did nothing to stop people from entering the building, and the doors were open.
In a series of Facebook videos from January 6, streamed live online, Garcia shows himself entering the the Capitol along with others in the mob.
‘We just went ahead and stormed the Capitol. It’s about to get ugly,’ he says in one of the videos.
The livestream captured Garcia roaming the Capitol building, yelling ‘f***ing traitors’ and ‘USA, storm this s***’.
During the assault on the capitol, rioters went door-to-door looking for Members of Congress they felt had betrayed Donald Trump by refusing to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
The crowd had earlier chanted ‘Hang Mike Pence’ and erected a gallows outside the capitol building, and targeted prominent Democrats including the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
Garcia insisted that when he yelled for Nancy to ‘come out and play’, he hadn’t intended to hurt Pelosi, and has not been charged in connection to the comments.
He suggested he may not have been referring to Pelosi.
‘Here’s the thing. Which Nancy am I talking about?’ he told the Herald.
‘I never said speaker of the house. Nancy Lopez? Maybe Nancy Reagan?’
Garcia, circled bottom right, told the Miami Herald he stayed within the ‘red velvet lines’
Trump supporters storm the Capitol Building following the ‘Stop The Steal’ rally where they assembled to protest the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021 in Washington DC
More than 300 people involved in the riot have been charged with criminal offences, including 19 members of the Proud Boys
Garcia was also captured yelling ‘Free Enrique,’ a reference to the Miami leader of the Proud Boys Enrique Tarrio, who was arrested a few days before the insurrection in Washington, DC, according to a complaint filed in January.
At least 19 members of the Proud Boys have been charged in federal court with offenses related to the January 6 riot. More than 300 people have been charged in total.
The Proud Boys were formed by Gavin McInnes in 2016, and quickly gained a reputation for violence.
Members are reportedly sworn in by chanting: ‘I am a Proud Boy. I am a western chauvinist. And I refuse to apologize for creating a modern world.’
In 2018, the FBI designated the Proud Boys an extremist group.
Last week, two Capitol Police officers are suing Donald Trump for inciting the January 6 riots that left dozens of their fellow officers injured and one dead.
James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby said they suffered ‘physical and emotional injuries’ in the violent ‘Stop The Steal’ insurrection which they said was spurred on by the former president.
Their suit, filed in federal court in Washington on Tuesday, said: ‘The insurrectionists were spurred on by Trump’s conduct over many months in getting his followers to believe his false allegation that he was about to be forced out of the White House because of massive election fraud.
