She’s the gift to Democrats that keeps on giving: Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
During a recent discussion about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s insistence that, until more House members get vaccinated against COVID-19, masks need to be worn in the chamber, Representative Greene told the Christian Broadcasting Network, “We can look back in a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens—so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany.”
And to ensure that her intent was clear, she added, “And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.”
Well, maybe she didn’t exactly mean exactly. But outrageousness, in this political era, does draw attention…and financial support. Ms. Greene, who has a long history of attention-getting statements, brought in more small dollar donations than any other House candidate during the first three months of the 2021 election cycle. (AOC came in second.)
Before she was elected to Congress, Ms. Greene made a Facebook video in which she explained that treason is “a crime punishable by death” and that Ms. Pelosi “is guilty of treason.” She also wrote posts for a now-defunct conspiracy theory blog with headlines accusing the Democratic Party of child abuse and satanism.
In April 2018, responding to a social media question about the time for hanging “H” and “O” [shorthand, presumably, for “Hillary” and “Obama”], she wrote: “Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off.”
And this past January, her Facebook account shared the notion that the deadly 2018 Camp Fire in California may have been caused by “space solar generators,” the devious work of, among others, the Rothschild family.
She also claimed that mass school shootings were hoaxes to push gun control. And speculated that the 9/11 attacks were part of a government plot.
Although Ms. Greene backed away from some of her claims, explaining that they had been (please sit down for this) based on misinformation, House members (all 222 Democrats and 11 of the 213 Republicans) voted in February to remove her from her committee assignments, including the Education Committee.
And her recent yellow star/COVID mask comment, as one might expect, drew broad criticism. Not only from Democrats but eventually from House Republican leaders too.
Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called Ms. Greene’s comment “appalling,” adding, “The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity committed in human history. The fact that this needs to be stated today is deeply troubling.”
(Ms. Greene responded to Mr. McCarthy’s sentiment by calling him a “moron” and an expletive.)
And over at the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s choice of adjectives included “outrageous” and “reprehensible.”
Speaker Pelosi, while labeling Ms. Greene’s comments “beyond reprehensible,” when asked if the rowdy representative should be censured or expelled from Congress, simply responded, “I think she should stop talking.”
Some people, largely on the basis of Ms. Greene’s “Rothschild” comment, have accused her of harboring anti-Semitic views. In 2018, she did share a video claiming that “Zionist supremacists” are conspiring to flood Europe with migrants to replace the “native” white populations.
But Ms. Greene is strongly supportive of Israel—quite the opposite of the “Squad” squatting on the other side of the aisle—and has no record of ever having disparaged Jews. Former President Trump, too, was accused of dog-whistling to Jew-haters, and no one seriously thinks he’s anti-Semitic.
In fact, Ms. Greene shares Mr. Trump’s ability to draw support with unbridled rhetoric and wholeheartedly endorses his claim that he didn’t lose the 2020 election.
She may have ulterior, and ambitious, motives for that stance. Because if the election was in fact “stolen” and Mr. Trump was actually the winner, well, although he has hinted at running again in 2024, there’s that pesky 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, the one that reads: “No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice.”
