Marjorie Taylor Greene
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"Marjorie Greene" redirects here. For the philosopher, see Marjorie Grene. For the mathematician and tennis player born Marjorie Greene, see Marjorie Hahn.
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Official portrait, 2021
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Georgia's 14th district
Assumed office
January 3, 2021
Preceded by
Tom Graves
Personal details
Born
Marjorie Taylor[1]
May 27, 1974 (age 46)
Milledgeville, Georgia, U.S.
Political party
Republican
Spouse(s)
Perry Greene
(m. 1995)
Children
3
Education
University of Georgia (BBA)
Website
House website
Marjorie Taylor Greene (born May 27, 1974), also known by her initials MTG,[2] is an American politician, businesswoman, and far-right[3] conspiracy theorist[4] serving as the U.S. representative for Georgia's 14th congressional district.[5] A member of the Republican Party and a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, Greene was elected to Congress in November 2020 and sworn into office on January 3, 2021.
Greene has supported disproven far-right conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and QAnon,[6][7] as well as other unevidenced conspiracy theories including false flag shootings and 9/11 conspiracy theories.[8][9] Additionally, before running for Congress, she supported the execution of prominent Democratic politicians.[10] Greene also supported Trump's efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
During the Electoral College vote count, Greene was among a group of Republican legislators who unsuccessfully objected to votes won by Biden,[11] despite federal agencies overseeing election security saying it was the most secure in American history.[12][13][14] After falsely asserting Trump was elected in a landslide but the election had been stolen from him, Greene filed articles of impeachment against Biden the day after his inauguration, alleging abuse of power.[15][16] The House of Representatives voted to remove Greene from all committee roles in response to a series of incendiary and violent statements that she had previously made. Eleven Republicans joined the unanimous Democrats in the vote on February 4, 2021.[17]
Early life and education
Greene was born in Milledgeville, Georgia, on May 27, 1974,[18] the daughter of Robert Taylor.[1] She graduated from South Forsyth High School in Cumming, Georgia, in 1992,[19][20] and the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1996.[19][21]
In statements made during 2019,[22] and in a House floor speech on February 4, 2021, in which she explained her position on gun rights and school shootings, Greene alluded to being affected by a September 1990 incident at her high school in which an armed student held other students hostage for over five hours: "I understand how terrible it is because when I was 16 years old in 11th grade my school was a gun-free school zone and one of my schoolmates brought guns to school and took our entire school hostage."[23] Contemporaneous news reports note the armed student held 53 students hostage.[24]
Early career and activism
Greene's father, Robert Taylor, founder of Taylor Commercial, a construction company based in Alpharetta, Georgia,[1][20] sold the company to Greene and her husband, Perry, in 2002.[1] The couple are vice president and president, respectively, of the company.[20] Greene was listed as the C.F.O. of the company from 2007 to 2011.[1]
Taylor Commercial, widely listed in business directories in recent years as a residential renovation and siding contractor,[25] received, during the 2020 pandemic, Paycheck Protection Program funding from the Small Business Administration in the amount of $182,300.[26][27] SBA filings declared Taylor Commercial expected to save 12 jobs with the federal funds.[28] During a July 2020 Republican congressional primary debate, Greene's main opponent, neurosurgeon John Cowan, questioned Greene's acceptance of the PPP money despite her opposition to Congressional appropriations of relief funds during the pandemic.[29][30]
In 2011, when she stepped down as C.F.O. of Taylor Commercial, she took up CrossFit and began to post on social media and publish podcasts.[31] By 2012, Greene was working as a part-time coach at CrossFit On The Move, an Alpharetta gym owned by Jim Chambers, who said that CrossFit "had kind of taken her life over", adding, "She had a lot of time and a lot of money" and a vague ambition "to run a gym".[1] In August 2013, Greene co-founded a CrossFit gym, CrossFit Passion, in Alpharetta along with then-22-year-old Travis Mayer, before later selling the business.[32][33]
Beginning in 2017, Greene authored 59 articles as a "correspondent" for the now-defunct "American Truth Seekers", a conspiracy news website,[8] and beginning in January 2018, 27 articles for Law Enforcement Today, a website that bills itself as "unapologetically in support of those who hold the Thin Blue Line."[34] In 2017, Greene visited Washington, DC, to protest against a Republican gun control compromise.[35]
Greene was a top official of the Family America Project, a conservative group founded in January 2018. She was a moderator of the organization's Facebook group, which included death threats against Democrats, bigotry directed at the Obamas, and support for multiple conspiracy theories, including claims associated with the John Birch Society of the U.S. government being infiltrated by communists.[36]
In February 2019, Greene visited the U.S. Capitol and congressional offices.[37] In a livestreamed video Greene posted on Facebook, she is seen outside Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's office, calling for Ocasio-Cortez "to stop being a baby and stop locking your door and come out and face the American citizens that you serve".[37] When visiting the offices of Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, Greene falsely claimed that they were not "official" representatives because they were sworn in to Congress on the Quran.[37] In the videos, Greene said that she wanted Omar and Tlaib to be instead sworn in on the Bible, and also accused the duo of supporting Islamic law.[38]
U.S. House of Representatives
2020 congressional campaign
Main article: 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in Georgia § District 14
Greene began her 2020 candidacy in Georgia's 6th congressional district on June 4, 2019, where she resided. She stated her commitment to balance the federal budget and restrain Congress from using its constitutional power to spend new money into existence, adding: "If we look at our country as our household, we're going to go under foreclosure because we're overspending. I look at it that way as a business owner and then I also look at it as a mom."[39] She also criticized her expected primary opponent Karen Handel's support for large omnibus spending bills and record of losing elections: "She's lost seven races in her entire political career… She steps down from seats that she does win so she can campaign for something else. Basically I would call her [a] professional campaigner, but she loses."[40]
On December 13, 2019, Greene announced that she was shifting her campaign to the 14th district, after incumbent Tom Graves announced he would not run for reelection there.[41] The district includes much of northwestern Georgia, from the Chattanooga metropolitan area to the fringes of Atlanta. Members of the House are constitutionally required to live in the state they represent, but not necessarily in the same congressional district.[42] Hence, although Greene had long lived in Alpharetta, which is in the 6th district, there would have been no legal barrier to Greene running for the 14th from Alpharetta. However, Greene said that she intended to move to the 14th district if she ran there.[43] She subsequently bought a home in nearby Paulding County, which is in the 14th district.[44] By the time she was sworn in in January 2021, Greene reported having moved to Rome, also firmly in the 14th, although FEC filings show her still living in Alpharetta.[45][46][non-primary source needed]
On February 29, 2020, Greene attended a gun rights rally in LaFayette, with American Patriots USA, a far-right group attempting to further its influence with Georgia Republicans.[47] At the rally, she held up an American Patriots USA banner while posing for photos with Chester Doles, a 5th generation Ku Klux Klansman and Grand Klaliff leader[48][49] who has nearly a dozen assault arrests and served two separate prison sentences in Maryland—the second, and longest, for the vicious 1993 beating of a black man he and a fellow Klansman left for dead.[50] In 2021, American Patriots USA formed an alliance with the far-right group American Brotherhood of Patriots and the far-right militia Georgia III% Martyrs to advocate for Georgia’s secession from the United States.[51]
Greene campaigned as a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump. She ran on the slogan "Save America, Stop Socialism!"[52][53] In the days before the primary election, Facebook took down a Greene video for violating its terms of service. In the video she held an AR-15 style rifle and warned "antifa terrorists" to "stay the hell out of Northwest Georgia".[52]
Greene finished first in the Republican primary. Because no candidate received more than half the votes, she faced John Cowan in the runoff election.[54] In a July 14 runoff debate sponsored by the Walker County Republican Party, Greene claimed that she was "all about making jobs here in America" and had "created thousands of jobs in the United States" as a business owner.[55]
Greene won the August 11 runoff. She was considered an overwhelming favorite to win the seat in the general election, as the 14th district typically votes heavily Republican;[56] it has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+27, making it the nation's 10th-most Republican district and the third-most Republican district in the Eastern Time Zone. Among Georgia's congressional districts, only the neighboring 9th district is more Republican. Since the 14th's creation in 2012, no Democrat has won more than 30% of the vote.[57] Trump carried the 14th with 75% of the vote in 2016, his eighth-best performance in the nation.[58] On the day after Greene's runoff victory, Trump tweeted his support for her, describing Greene as a "future Republican Star" who "is strong on everything and never gives up – a real WINNER!"[59]
On September 3, 2020, Greene shared a meme to her Facebook page depicting herself holding an AR-15 style rifle next to a collage of pictures of Representatives Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and Tlaib. She wrote that it was time for "strong conservative Christians to go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart". The caption underneath the images read "Squad's worst nightmare".[60] House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the meme as a "dangerous threat of violence" and Omar demanded that the meme be deleted after claiming it had triggered death threats.[61] In response to questions from Forbes about whether the meme was a threat, a Greene campaign spokesperson called the suggestion "paranoid and ridiculous" and a "conspiracy theory".[62] Facebook deleted the meme the following day for violating its policies on inciting violence, prompting Greene to claim that Democrats were "trying to cancel me out before I've even taken the oath of office".[63] On September 19, 2020, Greene appeared at a gun rights rally in Ringgold, Georgia, where the Georgia III% Martyrs provided security "wearing camouflage, body armor, radios and in one case a battle ax".[64][51]
Greene was expected to face Democratic IT specialist Kevin Van Ausdal, but he withdrew from the race on September 11, 2020. This left Greene unopposed in the November general election.[65][66] In the general election, Greene won with 74% of the vote. Van Ausdal, whose name remained on the ballot, took 25%.[67] Greene became the second Republican woman to represent Georgia in the House. The first, Karen Handel, was elected to represent the 6th in a special election in 2017,[68] but was defeated for a full term in 2018. Greene thus became the first Republican woman elected to a full term from a Georgia district.
In the days following the 2020 election, Greene made deceptive claims that her husband Perry's Floyd County voting record revealed a "scam", writing in social media: "My husband never requested an absentee ballot, but when he went to vote they told him that they had already received his absentee ballot. But he NEVER requested an absentee ballot nor did he send one in! [...] What really happened to the other ballot?" Floyd County chief elections clerk Robert Brady told Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters that nothing happened to that other ballot, and that it was canceled according to procedure, adding that "he [Perry Greene] signed an affidavit on the 23rd and he was allowed to vote. [...] He only voted one time.”[69]
Endorsements
Prominent Republicans who supported Greene in her candidacy included U.S. representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows.[70][71][72][64] Meadows's wife, Debbie Meadows, is the executive director of RightWomen Pac, which endorsed Greene and contributed $17,500 to her primary campaign. Other donors include Barb Van Andel-Gaby, the chair of board of the Heritage Foundation, and L. Lin Wood, an attorney and conspiracy theorist.[73] Greene also received support from the House Freedom Fund, a political action committee and the campaign fundraising arm of the House Freedom Caucus.[71] The Georgia Republican Party contributed $5,220 to her campaign treasury on March 2, 2020.[74]
Republican primary results[75]
Party
Candidate
Votes
%
Republican
Marjorie Taylor Greene
43,892
40.3
Republican
John Cowan
22,862
21.0
Republican
John Barge
9,619
8.8
Republican
Clayton Fuller
7,433
6.8
Republican
Bill Hembree
6,988
6.4
Republican
Kevin Cooke
6,699
6.2
Republican
Matt Laughridge
6,220
5.7
Republican
Ben Bullock
3,883
3.6
Republican
Andy Gunther
1,220
1.1
Total votes
108,816
100.0
Republican runoff results[76]
Party
Candidate
Votes
%
Republican
Marjorie Taylor Greene
43,813
57.1
Republican
John Cowan
32,982
42.9
Total votes
76,795
100.0
Georgia's 14th congressional district, 2020[77]
Party
Candidate
Votes
%
Republican
Marjorie Taylor Greene
229,827
74.7
Democratic
Kevin Van Ausdal[a]
77,798
25.3
Total votes
307,625
100.0
Republican hold
Tenure
Greene being sworn in by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
On her first day in office, Greene wore a face mask onto the House floor reading "Trump Won"; Trump in fact lost the 2020 U.S. presidential election to Joe Biden.[78] During the counting of electoral votes, Greene raised an objection to counting Michigan's electoral votes. The objection was not signed by a member of the U.S. Senate and therefore failed.[79]
In response to the storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, Greene called for an end to violence and for support for Trump.[80][81] She refused to wear a face mask while sheltering in place during the riot, and during the debate to impeach Trump she tweeted, "Democrats must be held accountable for the political violence inspired by their rhetoric." This prompted Democratic representative Jason Crow to call her "morally bankrupt", "depraved" and "frankly dangerous".[81]
Greene filed articles of impeachment against Joe Biden alleging abuse of power on January 21, 2021, the day after Biden's inauguration.[16] In an interview with Greg Kelly of Newsmax, she claimed Biden is "willing to abuse the power of the office of the presidency and be easily bought off by foreign governments, foreign Chinese energy companies, [and] Ukrainian energy companies".[82]
On January 27, 2021, Representative Jimmy Gomez announced he had drafted a resolution to expel Greene from the House following reports that she had previously called for violence against Democrats online.[83] Representative Jake Auchincloss also called for Greene's resignation or expulsion due to her threats of violence against fellow lawmakers.[84] On January 28, 2021, with the revelations of Greene's threats against Democratic members of the House, Pelosi spoke of an "enemy within the House of Representatives" and the need to increase security measures, stating that this referred to members ... who want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence on other members of Congress", seemingly alluding to Greene and other Republican members such as Lauren Boebert, who wanted to bring a gun onto the House floor.[85] Pelosi also criticized the House Republican leadership for placing Greene on the Education Committee after Greene had questioned the authenticity of deadly school shootings around the country.[86]
On January 29, 2021, Representatives Nikema Williams and Sara Jacobs introduced a resolution to censure Greene for making threatening comments to her congressional colleagues, and to call for her resignation.[87] On March 19, Gomez formally introduced his resolution to expel Greene, with the support of 72 Democrats and no Republicans. It is thought unlikely to gain the required two-thirds majority.[88][89]
The Washington Post reported in May 2021 that two of its reporters observed Greene aggressively confront Ocasio-Cortez outside the House chamber, loudly asking why she supported antifa and Black Lives Matter, which Greene falsely characterized as terrorists, adding, "You don’t care about the American people." Ocasio-Cortez did not respond and called on House leadership to ensure that Congress remains "a safe, civil place for all Members and staff."[90]
Committee assignments and removal
Greene was briefly a member of the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Education and Labor before she was removed from all committee assignments on February 4, 2021, for incendiary remarks she had made before her election.[91][92]
Since February 4, 2021:
- None[17]
Before February 4, 2021:
Caucus memberships
Political positions
Greene with her congressional office staff, "Team Greene" on her first day in office, January 3, 2021.
After she won the 2020 Republican primary runoff election, Greene asserted on Twitter that "[t]he GOP establishment, the media, & the radical left, spent months & millions of dollars attacking me".[97] She said she intended to continue "pulling the [Republican Party] to the right".[98]
Abortion
Greene opposes abortion.[53] In an August 2020 interview with Fox News, she indicated her support for defunding Planned Parenthood.[99]
Gun rights
At a gun rights rally in Ringgold, Georgia, in September 2020, Greene said she would always protect the rights of gun owners and would not vote for any laws making it harder for people to possess guns.[100][101] She declared, "The government will never tell me how many guns I can own, and how many bullets I am allowed to fire if someone were to attack me or my kids."[102] In September 2020, Greene tweeted her intention to give away an AR-15 style rifle she used in one of her campaign advertisements.[103]
LGBT rights
On February 24, 2021, Greene tried to block the Equality Act while it was being debated on the House floor.[104] She proposed replacing it with a bill that would exempt nonprofit organizations, allow people to sue the federal government "if their religious rights are violated", and prevent trans women and girls from participating in women's sport.[105]
After floor debate on the bill that day, Representative Marie Newman, whose Congressional office is opposite Greene's, displayed a transgender pride flag outside her office. In response, Greene displayed a transphobic poster outside her office reading: “There are TWO genders: Male & Female. Trust The Science!"[106] Newman has a transgender daughter, whom Greene called Newman's "biological son".[107] In support of Newman, Representative Jennifer Wexton tweeted, "There’s no lower low than going after someone’s kids".[108]
COVID-19
In July 2020, Greene said on Twitter that "children should not wear masks", rejecting recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health professionals.[109] She described restrictions imposed in the United States Capitol in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including face mask requirements, as "Democrat tyrannical control".[110] She opposes any form of mandatory mask-wearing, compulsory vaccination, or lockdowns in response to the pandemic. She described mask-wearing as "oppressive" on Twitter, prompting a response from Anthony Fauci, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, who described Greene's stance as "disturbing".[98] Greene refused to wear a mask in a secured room with other members of Congress during the storming of the United States Capitol in January 2021.[111] After sheltering with Republicans who refused to wear a mask during the attack, it was reported that several Democratic representatives had tested positive for COVID-19, including Bonnie Watson Coleman, Pramila Jayapal and Brad Schneider.[112]
By March 2021, the private sector had begun efforts to create "vaccine passports" to better enable those who had been inoculated to resume public gatherings, and some states and the federal government were considering such plans, though the Biden administration said participation would not be compulsory. On Facebook and Twitter, Greene suggested the plan might be "Biden's mark of the beast," a Book of Revelation reference to Satan, echoing a conspiracy theory among some on the religious right that getting vaccinated is equivalent to pledging allegiance to the devil. Greene added, "It's still fascism, or communism, whatever you want to call it, but it's coming from private companies. So, I have a term for that. I call it 'corporate communism.'"[113] Days later, Greene introduced a bill in the House, the "We Will Not Comply Act," to ban vaccine passports, as well as the "Fire Fauci Act" to eliminate the salary of Anthony Fauci until his successor is confirmed by the Senate, although Senate confirmation is not required for Fauci's position as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.[114][115]
Race, religion, and immigration
Greene opposes the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and described it as a "radical Marxist" group.[53] In a video, she compared BLM activists to white nationalist participants at the Unite the Right rally which took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. She ended one of her videos commenting: "The most mistreated group of people in the United States today are white males."[116]
In a recording obtained by Politico, Greene said that "anyone that is a Muslim that believes in Sharia law does not belong in [the U.S.] government". She contended that Black Americans "are held slaves to the Democratic Party". Her comments on black people, Muslims, and Jews were denounced by Republican House leaders, a spokesman for National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Emmer, and the Republican Jewish Coalition.[116] Greene stated that the 2018 midterm elections, in which Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, two Muslim women, were elected to Congress, was part of "an Islamic invasion of our government".[97]
In February 2019, Greene and a group of her supporters walked through a congressional office building with the stated intent of making Omar and Tlaib (who had taken their ceremonial oaths of office using Qurans) retake their oaths on Bibles. Greene falsely claimed that an oath-taking on the Bible was required by law; Article VI of the Constitution in fact specifically provides that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."[117][118]
On April 16, 2021, it was reported that Greene and other far-right House Republicans such as Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar were interested in launching an "America First Caucus". According to a leaked document on the aims of the caucus, they believe that "America is a nation with a border, and a culture, strengthened by a common respect for uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions".[119] Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy indirectly criticized the caucus as pushing "nativist dog whistles".[120] Greene's office said on April 16 that the new caucus would be launched "very soon", but the next day her spokesman said it was "an early planning proposal and nothing was agreed to or approved" and that "She’s not planning on launching it at this time”.[121]
Donald Trump and Joe Biden
Greene is a strong supporter of former president Donald Trump; on January 4, 2021, she called for the results of the election in Georgia to be "decertified".[122] When asked if doing so would affect her own seat and that of other Georgia Republicans (all of whom were elected on the same ballot), Greene said, "We're just talking about the president's race."[122]
After the second impeachment of Donald Trump, she introduced an article of impeachment against Joe Biden on January 21, the day after he took office; nobody co-sponsored Greene's proposal.[123][124][125]
Foreign policy
During a speech at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Greene adamantly opposed foreign aid saying, "I wanted to take my regular, normal person, normal, everyday American values, which is: We love our country. We believe our hard-earned tax dollars should just go for America, not for... China, Russia, the Middle East, Guam – whatever, wherever."[126][127] This remark about Guam (which is a U.S. territory whose residents are U.S. citizens) prompted Guam Delegate Michael San Nicolas who said he would be offering her Chamorro chip cookies in what he calls "cookie diplomacy."[128][129] Governor Lou Leon Guerrero also told the Guam Post that her office would be "more than happy to send Representative Greene's office a copy of Destiny's Landfall: A History of Guam.”[130]
In 2021, Greene was one of 14 House Republicans to vote against a measure condemning the Myanmar coup d'état that overwhelmingly passed, for reasons reported to be unclear.[131]
Controversies
This article's Criticism or Controversy section may compromise the article's neutral point of view of the subject. Please integrate the section's contents into the article as a whole, or rewrite the material. (May 2021)
Greene made multiple controversial and incendiary statements both before and during office in support of conspiracy theories. She has also been reported to have ties to militia groups and calling for the execution toward Democratic politicians and FBI agents as part of the "deep state" against Trump.[132]
Connections to militia groups and violent rhetoric
In an interview with gun activist Chris Dorr on October 27, 2020, a week before election day, Greene told viewers: "The only way you get your freedoms back is it's earned with the price of blood."[133] On January 29, 2021, The New York Times detailed Greene's support for and past ties with extremist militia groups, including the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers, some of whom participated in the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.[101]
Support for executing Democrats and FBI agents
In a January 2019 Facebook video, Greene said, "It's a crime punishable by death is what treason is. Nancy Pelosi is guilty of treason." Greene made the video to promote a petition made to the White House for the impeachment of Pelosi for treason, due to Pelosi's opposition to Trump's proposed border wall, as well as alleged sanctuary policies of Pelosi that "are serving illegals and not United States citizens". In February 2019 Facebook live-streamed videos, Greene visited Pelosi's office, where she suggested that Pelosi would "suffer death or she'll be in prison" for "treason", without discussing a trial. Greene then suggested that Democratic Representative Maxine Waters was "just as guilty of treason as Nancy Pelosi".[10]
Greene's Facebook account in 2018 and 2019 expressed support for the execution of leading Democrats, including Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton, as well as support for the execution of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.[10][134] For example, when another poster asked in April 2018: "Now do we get to hang them?? Meaning H & O???", Greene's account responded: "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."[10] Greene did not deny the authenticity of the reported content, instead responding that the CNN article was "focused on my time before running for political office", that "teams of people manage my pages", and that CNN had reported on content that "did not represent my views".[10][134] The progressive advocacy organization People For the American Way called for the House to expel Greene, a measure that would require support from two-thirds of the House.[135]
Support for conspiracy theories
After the first round of voting in the 2020 Republican primary election (and before the Republican primary runoff election), Politico rereleased videos Greene published in which she expressed racist, antisemitic, and Islamophobic views. Her support for bigotry and the QAnon conspiracy theory in the videos were condemned, including by conservatives such as House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and Republican Whip Steve Scalise,[116][136] but they took no action against her, with McCarthy remaining neutral in the runoff.[137] Some of Greene's social media postings and publications remained online through her 2020 campaign.[31] After they drew attention in January 2021, she deleted them.[138]
Greene has promoted multiple baseless conspiracy theories, including the claim that Hillary Clinton is responsible for a series of murders; that Democratic Party elites are responsible for a satanic child sex trafficking ring; that the government orchestrated the 2017 Las Vegas shooting; that the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, was a "false flag" attack intended to help introduce gun control; that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was staged; that Barack Obama and his advisor Valerie Jarrett were secretly Muslim and that the September 11 attack on the Pentagon was fake. Greene also promoted the false anti-Semitic conspiracy claim that the 2018 Camp Fire, a deadly wildfire in California, was caused by Rothschild Inc. "space solar generators".[139][140]
Pizzagate and QAnon
Greene has said there are links between Hillary Clinton and pedophilia and human sacrifice[1] and, in 2017, speculated that the Pizzagate conspiracy theory is real.[6] Greene claimed Clinton murdered her political enemies in a revival of the "Clinton Kill List" conspiracy theory.[8] In one of her own videos, posted to YouTube in 2018, Greene suggested John F. Kennedy Jr.'s death in a plane crash in 1999 was a "Clinton murder" because he was a possible rival to her for a New York senate seat.[72]
In January 2021, Media Matters found a 2018 Facebook post that showed Greene agreeing with a conspiracy theory known as Frazzledrip,[141] which asserts that there is a video of Hillary Clinton and her assistant Huma Abedin murdering a child in a satanic ritual and that Clinton later ordered a "hit" on a police officer to cover it up.[142][143][144] In response, Greene dismissed Media Matters' findings as the work of "Communists [sic] bloggers".[145]
Greene supported the debunked far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, saying in videos posted in 2017 on Facebook that the theories were "worth listening to".[7][136] She stated in a video, "There's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it."[146]
According to her author biography page, Greene wrote 59 articles for the now-defunct conspiracy theory website American Truth Seekers, including one linking the Democratic Party to "Child Sex, Satanism, and the Occult".[8][6] When Greene ran for the House of Representatives in 2020, she distanced herself from that conspiracy theory and said she had not referred to "Q" or QAnon during her campaign. She said she no longer had a connection with it and mentioned having found "misinformation".[147]
"False flag" and similar claims
In a 2017 video posted to Facebook, Greene expressed doubt that the perpetrator of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, a large-scale incident she believes was intended as an attack on the right to bear arms, acted alone.[148][8] Greene claimed that the August 2017 Charlottesville white nationalist rally, in which a counter-protester was killed in a car attack, was an "inside job".[149] She believes the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand were a "false flag" for the same end.[20]
In a 2018 interview, Greene expressed support for a conspiracy theory that a plane did not hit the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks; she referred to "the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon" and said that "it's odd there's never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon" (despite an abundance of evidence).[150] On another occasion, at a conservative conference in 2018, she said 9/11 was part of a U.S. government plot.[8] Following an August 2020 Media Matters for America report on her comments, Greene wrote on Twitter, "Some people claimed a missile hit the Pentagon. I now know that is not correct."[8][150] She has claimed Democratic National Committee staff member Seth Rich was murdered by the MS-13 street gang on Obama's behalf.[151] According to Greene, Obama is secretly a Muslim; in actuality, he is a Christian.[72][152]
In a February 2019 interview, Greene suggested that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been replaced in public appearances by a body double.[153] A QAnon-related conspiracy theory held that Ginsburg had died years earlier, and that Democrats used a body double to conceal her death so they could hold onto her Supreme Court seat during Trump's presidency.[153] Ginsburg actually died on September 18, 2020, during Trump's presidency, and Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett as her replacement.[153][154]
School shootings
In a 2018 Facebook post found by Media Matters in January 2021, Greene claimed that the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, was an organized "false flag" operation. In another post, she claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was also a false flag operation. In another Facebook post later in 2018 she wrote, "I am told that Nancy Pelosi tells Hillary Clinton several times a month that 'we need another school shooting' in order to persuade the public to want strict gun control."[155][156] Parkland shooting survivors such as David Hogg and Cameron Kasky, as well as Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was murdered in the Parkland attack, condemned Greene's remarks and demanded that she resign from Congress.[157][158] Greene called Hogg, who advocates gun control, "#littleHitler"[10] and, in a 2019 interview with a gun-rights group, denounced him as an "idiot" who is trained "like a dog."[159] A March 2019 video[160] shows Greene following and taunting Hogg, accusing him of using children for his cause. After the encounter, she called him a "coward" and falsely claimed he is funded by George Soros.[161][162] The website Snopes found the video uploaded by Guttenberg and others was the second incident in which Greene targeted Hogg. Both occurred on March 25, 2019, and Greene live-streamed the first to her Facebook account. The second video was uploaded to Greene's YouTube account in January 2020.[160]
In January 2021, a Greene staffer threatened to have WRCB-TV reporter Meredith Aldis arrested after Aldis tried to ask Greene a question at a town hall event about her harassment of Hogg.[163]
Soon after these comments came to light, Representative Jahana Hayes, whose district includes Sandy Hook, circulated a letter to the House Republican leadership urging them not to seat Greene on the Education Committee.[164] Hogg called for Greene to be expelled from Congress, saying that "Minority Leader McCarthy has endorsed her" by not taking actions to sanction Greene.[159]
Antisemitism and "white genocide"
In 2018, Greene shared a video, With Open Gates: The Forced Collective Suicide of European Nations repeating the antisemitic white genocide conspiracy theory that "Zionist supremacists" are conspiring to flood Europe with migrants to replace the 'native' white populations. The video, uncovered by Media Matters for America, said that those supporting refugees are using "immigrant pawns" to commit "the biggest genocide in human history". In sharing the video, Greene wrote that: "This is what the UN wants all over the world".[165] The white genocide conspiracy theory has been associated with white supremacy and espouses the unsubstantiated belief that white people, in a "Great Replacement", will eventually become a minority in Europe and North America due to declining white birth rates and high rates of immigration. Greene has also falsely called George Soros – a Jewish businessman and Holocaust survivor – a Nazi.[166] She promoted the conspiracy theory that Soros' family collaborated with the Nazis in Hungary and is "trying to continue what was not finished".[116]
Camp Fire conspiracy theory
In January 2021, various media outlets reported that in November 2018, Greene's Facebook account shared a conspiracy theory about the deadly Camp Fire in 2018 in California, suggesting that it could have been caused by "space solar generators" in a scheme involving California governor Jerry Brown, companies PG&E, Rothschild & Co and Solaren.[167][168][169] The Rothschild family, a supposed "international cabal of Jewish bankers", has been the target of numerous antisemitic conspiracy theories since at least the 19th century.[170] Jewish groups such as the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and Anti-Defamation League criticized Greene's promotion of conspiracy theories tinged with antisemitic overtones[171] and commentators, elected officials, and others ridiculed it.[172]
In response, Solaren, a solar energy company, noted several fundamental problems with the conspiracy theory, including that its space-based solar power system did not beam power using the visible light part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and so could not be observed as the "blue beams of light" referenced by the conspiracy theory; that the system does not use lasers, and so could not have "laser beams"; that Solaren's power contract with PG&E ended in 2015; and that by 2021, Solaren had not in fact launched any solar power satellites into space at all, let alone had one in space in 2018.[173]
COVID-19 mask mandate Holocaust comparison
In May 2021, Greene said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's requirement for the House to continue wearing masks until all representatives prove they have been vaccinated "is exactly the [same] type of abuse" as Jews being "put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany" during the Holocaust.[174][175] The next day, she defended her comments, further claiming that "any rational Jewish person doesn't like what's happening with overbearing mask mandates and overbearing vaccine policies." These comments drew widespread criticism, including from fellow Republican representatives and the Jewish community. House Republican leaders condemned her remarks five days later.[175][176][177][178]
Responses within Congress
Democrats condemned Greene's incendiary statements and promotion of conspiracy theories. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz introduced a motion to remove Greene from her committee assignments,[84][179] saying, "Greene's appalling behavior both before her election and during her term has helped fuel domestic terrorism, endangered lives of her colleagues and brought shame on the entire House of Representatives... Based on her actions and statements and her belligerent refusal to disavow them, she should not be permitted to participate in the important work of these two influential committees."[180] On February 1, 2021, House majority leader Steny Hoyer gave House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republican House leaders an ultimatum: unless they stripped Greene of her committee seats within 72 hours, the Democrats would bring Wasserman Schultz's motion before the full House.[93][179] McCarthy has called some of Greene's comments "deeply disturbing".[181]
With Republican officials under mounting pressure to denounce Greene,[87] Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement to The Hill in which he attacked "loony lies and conspiracy theories" as a "cancer for the Republican Party".[182] The statement did not name Greene but reporting[180][183][184][185] described the statement as "unmistakably about"[186] and "clearly targeted" at Greene.[187] McConnell confirmed it the following day, referring to his comments on Greene and adding, "I think I adequately spoke out about how I feel."[188] His statement said that "Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.'s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party."[182] Greene tweeted in response, "[t]he real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully. This is why we are losing our country."[183][184] After McConnell's statement, several other Republican senators voiced criticisms of Greene.[189] Mitt Romney said that the Republican Party's "big tent is not large enough to both accommodate conservatives and kooks".[181] Kevin Cramer said that he would have "a hard time supporting ... [Greene] being on the Education Committee" in the light of "her positions on the school shootings being staged", adding, "Real authority has moral authority."[189] Both Florida senators condemned the idea that the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting might have not have been real, with Marco Rubio stating that anyone arguing it was a false flag is "either deranged or a sadist".[159][189] Greene used the criticism to set a new fundraising goal, saying that she needed to defend her seat.[188]
McCarthy met with Greene on February 2 and then held meetings with the House GOP Steering Committee,[190] which is responsible for committee assignments for Republican members of the House. No decision was made that day[189] but Greene was a major topic of discussion for the Republican Congressional Caucus meeting on February 3, along with the fate of Representative Liz Cheney after her vote in favor of Trump's second impeachment.[188] Greene retains Trump's support,[181] which presents McCarthy with a problem in managing the expectations of his party in dealing with the Cheney and Greene situations.[188]
As controversy grew about her previous comments, Greene removed her old social media posts,[191] and spoke before the House Republican Conference on February 3, 2021, to assert that her social media content did not reflect who she is. About half those in attendance rose and applauded after her comments. That day, the Democratic-controlled Rules Committee passed Wasserman Schultz's motion to remove Greene from her committee assignments.[192] McCarthy indicated his conference would not act against Greene.[193][194] Pelosi chastised McCarthy for acquiescing to Greene, referring to him as "McCarthy (Q-CA)".[195] The next day, February 4, the full House voted to remove Greene from her committee assignments.[17] The vote was 230 to 199, with 11 Republicans joining all Democrats.[196]
Responses outside Congress
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Republican Jewish Coalition condemned Greene's statements.[87]
Greene's Twitter account was locked for 12 hours on January 17, 2021. A Twitter spokesperson said that Greene was sanctioned "for multiple violations of our civic integrity policy".[197] Twitter's action was based on a company policy it had used to remove thousands of QAnon-related accounts after the storming of the United States Capitol.[198] Before the suspension, Greene's posts included false claims about voting fraud and statements blaming electoral officials in Georgia for their failure to act on such claims.[197][199][200][198] Upon returning to Twitter the next day, she criticized the company: "Contrary to how highly you think of yourself and your moral platitude, you are not the judge of humanity. God is."[201] She was again suspended from Twitter for 12 hours in the late evening of March 18, 2021, the ban expiring around midday the following day.[202] Twitter later said it was an error, and access to her account was restored.[203]
On February 9, 2021, Shaun Holmes, the father of a 10-year-old boy with Down syndrome, confronted Greene at a Whitfield County Republican Party meeting. Asked about her use of the word "retard" to refer to individuals with the syndrome, Greene said, "I guess it was a slang word. You can actually look it up in the dictionary", adding, "I do apologize for that being offensive to anyone."[204]
In a late January 2021 interview with far-right British political commentator Katie Hopkins, Greene said that she would "love to trade [Hopkins] for some of our white people here that have no appreciation for our country."[205]
In February 2021, CrossFit attempted to distance itself from Greene, who once owned an affiliated gym and is an avid proponent of CrossFit fitness regimens.[206] CrossFit spokesperson Andrew Weinstein told BuzzFeed News, "CrossFit supports respectful fact-based political dialogue to address our common challenges, and we strongly oppose the loathsome and dangerous lies attributed to Ms. Greene."[206]
On May 21, 2021, Common Cause filed a complaint against Greene for an alleged violation of McCain-Feingold campaign finance provisions, specifically implicitly soliciting unlimited and unlawful contributions in a video appearance made on behalf of a Super Pac, Fight Back NOW, that targeted Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, who won runoff elections held in Georgia in January 2021. She urged that viewers contribute to the "Stop Socialism NOW" PAC.[207]
Personal life
Greene is married to Perry Greene.[208]
In a 2011 video, Marjorie Taylor Greene said that during her childhood she and her family "attended church off and on" and that she was baptized for the first time at age seven so that she could take her first communion with her school class. She noted that during her marriage the church she and her husband attended "went through a revolting scandal."[209] She was subsequently rebaptized in 2011 into North Point Community Church, an evangelical megachurch network based in Alpharetta, in a baptism published in the aforementioned video.[210] Greene speaks often about her faith, and has said that she wants to bring "my faith and my family values to Washington".[1]
As of March 19, 2021, Greene is barred from blocking anyone on her public Twitter or any other social media account while in office, and was forced to pay $10,000 to cover legal fees for MeidasTouch LLC, whose co-founder says it will donate the money to two nonprofits.[211]
According to Channel 2 Action News, in May 2021 Greene broke Georgia law by claiming two homestead tax exemptions on her properties, an older home and one she bought in the 14th congressional district when she ran for office; only one exemption may legally be claimed. Greene responded that the issue was "paperwork, which is being taken care of".[212]
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