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Marjorie Taylor Greene, known for espousing bizarre conspiracy theories, says U.S. embassies should display the American flag only.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, already under fire for her support of QAnon conspiracy theories, has announced her cosponsorship of a bill to ban flying of what she calls "hate America flags," including Pride flags, at U.S. embassies.
The bill, House Resolution 85, informally called the Old Glory Only Act, would prohibit the display of anything but the American flag at embassies. Rep. Jeff Duncan, a South Carolina Republican, is the primary sponsor. He has introduced the bill several times, and it has gone nowhere.
Greene, a Republican from Georgia, issued a press release Monday with a headline referring to "hate America flags" at embassies.
"President Biden's State Department has already raised a flag over our embassies that doesn't represent the vast majority of Americans," she said in the release, apparently a reference to the LGBTQ+ Pride flag. She continued with a preposterous mischaracterization of the Black Lives Matter movement.
"In the past, rogue members of the State Department flew the flag of the radical Marxist group, Black Lives Matter," she said. "The domestic terrorists represented by that flag have burned down our cities with the mission of defunding our police. We should NOT be flying a flag of a group who wants to erase our history and bring mass destruction to our country through Communism."
When Donald Trump was president, he ordered embassies not to fly the Pride flag or anything but the U.S. flag on official flagpoles without special permission, although they could display it inside or on exterior walls. Most requests for permission were denied, but some ambassadors defied the order. President Biden's recently confirmed secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has said he will allow the display of Pride flags without restrictions.
Last June, Harry Harris, the ambassador to South Korea, hung the Pride flag and the Black Lives Matter flag on the side of the embassy in Seoul. "Our #BlackLivesMatter banner shows our support for the fight against racial injustice and police brutality as we strive to be a more inclusive & just society," Harris tweeted at the time. But he took down both flags within days, Newsweek notes.
Greene, who is beginning her first term in Congress, is notorious for espousing theories advanced by the anonymous internet user known as QAnon. Democrats in the House want to strip her of her assignments to the education and budget committees "as a consequence for her inflammatory and false statements," NBC News reports. Some House members have called for her expulsion, but that would require the vote of two-thirds of representatives.
Among other things, Greene has promoted the theories that the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., and Parkland, Fla., were staged (she backed away from this Monday); that the 2018 wildfires in California were ignited by "Jewish space lasers"; that President Obama's administration had a Democratic National Committee staff member killed; and that Bill and Hillary Clinton were implicated in John F. Kennedy Jr.'s death.
Additionally, "she has expressed support of social media calls to execute high-profile Democrats, including the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and F.B.I. agents," according to The New York Times. "When asked about such activities, Ms. Greene has dodged, asserting that her pages have been run by 'teams' of people over the years, some promoting views with which she does not agree. Many of the posts in question have since been scrubbed."
She has continued, however, to claim the presidential election was stolen from Trump, and she voted to overturn the election results. She has said she recently received a supportive phone call from Trump, but his aides have declined to confirm that. She has also said she will meet with him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida soon.
