Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Kathy Barnette was photographed marching with the Proud Boys on 6 January ahead of the 2021 attack on the US Capitol, NBC News reported.
NBC News reported that it confirmed the images, but Ms Barnette said that she was not present at the Capitol when the raid began. Chad Loder, who covers extremism online, first discovered the photos.
But when asked by NBC whether she was present, Ms Barnette’s campaign defended her.
“Kathy was in DC to support President Trump and demand election accountability. Any assertion that she participated in or supported the destruction of property is intentionally false. She has no connection whatsoever to the proud boys,” her campaign said.
Similarly, she compared the raid at the Capitol to Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests and destruction of property.
“I feel about January 6, the way the left feels about the summer of 2020 when you have Black Lives Matter and Antifa and other groups out there looting and robbing and everyone was calling it mostly peaceful protests,” she said.
Ms Barnette has recently surged in polls in the Republican primary race for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat. Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who voted to convict Mr Trump for his role inciting the 6 January riot, is retiring.
A recent Fox News poll showed that she surged to third place behind businessman David McCormick and television host and physician Dr Mehmet Oz and that she had jumped ten percentage points.
Former president Donald Trump for his part has stood by his endorsement of Dr Oz, saying he can win.
“Dr Oz is the only one who will be able to easily defeat the Crazed, Lunatic Democrat in Pennsylvania,” Mr Trump said last week in a statement. “A vote for anyone else in the Primary is a vote against Victory in the Fall!”
