Navy falsely accused of hiring Jan. 6 rioter as new communications director

The Secretary of the Navy got a new chief spokesperson on Tuesday: a former Pentagon correspondent for the right-wing publication Breitbart, whose posts from the Capitol on Jan. 6 are now resurfacing online.

“My job is to keep you up to date on what the Secretary’s been doing, his top priorities, and happenings across the Navy and Marine Corps,” Wong said in a video announcing her new post. “Secretary [John] Phalen has been working hard every day on shipbuilding, maintaining our maritime dominance, and improving the health, welfare, and morale of our sailors and Marines.”

Wong’s appointment was quick to spur criticism from the online left, which highlighted her attendance at the Jan. 6 protest at the Capitol in 2021 seeking to overturn President Donald Trump’s election loss.

Wong at the time was a journalist and posted numerous on-the-ground interviews with Jan. 6 protesters and photos documenting the day’s events.

But her capacity as a journalist is not stopping the onslaught of Jan. 6-related criticism, with several individuals dismissing that defense due to her outlet (Breitbart) and her photo captions.

“Our new Navy Director of Communications watched the action at the Capitol on Jan 6 for Breitbart News,” remarked the crowd-sourced anti-Jan. 6 account capitolhunters. “Her worst post might be this one: she flippantly captioned a video of people attacking the North Doors: ‘Things got a lil sporty here’. To her it was a joke.”

“Peeking into the Capitol building,” Wong captioned another photo.

“What’s next? Appointing serial killers as judges?” blasted one person in response to the image resurfacing.

“Desecration of the U.S. Capitol is pretty funny according to the latest Trump appointee,” replied another critic.

Other accounts pointed to Wong’s posting opposing U.S. aid to Ukraine alongside the images from Jan. 6 in their criticism.

“The US Navy’s new Director of Communications, Kristina Wong, is a Jan 6 terrorist and an anti-Ukraine, pro-Kremlin mouthpiece,” accused @YourAnonCentral on X. “Likely an unregistered foreign agent (spy).”

“I’d like to introduce the actual Kristina Wong,” posted someone else, who highlighted one of Wong’s posts stating Ukraine had reached a “new level of FAFO” in terms of U.S. support.

In later posts online, Wong often derided the work of the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack and rejected left-wing characterizations of Jan. 6 as a massive coup attempt.

“Thousands did not invade. Thousands came, protested, chanted, and sang,” she wrote on Jan. 8. “Dozens got inside the Capitol or got violent. Violence is not OK. But let’s not conflate everyone there.”

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