trudestress
How MTG Has Made Our Jaws Drop
For connoisseurs of outrageous right-wing political rhetoric, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the gift that keeps on giving. The Republican from Georgia was elected to Congress in 2020 as a known conspiracy theorist, and in her one term and the time leading up to it, she's attacked LGBTQ+ people, prominent Democrats, a Supreme Court nominee, and many more, with remarks about pedophilia, space lasers starting forest fires, and the upcoming extinction of straight people. Plus there have been her noted malapropisms like "gazpacho police." Read on for a timeline of Greene's greatest hits.
Space Lasers, Political Murders, and Muslims Taking Over
MTG, the early years: Before her election, Greene had already left a long trail of crazy remarks, as one might expect from a supporter of QAnon conspiracy theories. QAnon is an unidentified internet user who has claimed the Democratic Party is a hotbed of pedophilia, Satanism, and more. When elected, she asserted she had rejected some of the QAnon ideas but didn't say which. Here are some of claims she made before running for office, whether they're from QAnon or not: A wildfire in California was started by a laser "beamed from space and controlled by a prominent Jewish banking family with connections to powerful Democrats," as The New York Times summed it up. Bill and Hillary Clinton had John F. Kennedy Jr. killed because he was a political rival (Kennedy died in a plane crash in 1999). A plane probably didn't crash into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. President Obama is a secret Muslim, and the election of two Muslim women to Congress amounts to a "takeover." You get the picture.
Don't Hang 'Hate America Flags'
February 2021: Early in her term, Greene endorsed legislation that would ban the display of Pride flags and what she called "hate America flags" at U.S. 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 a press release, apparently meaning the Pride flag. She also said the Black Lives Matter flag represents "a group who wants to erase our history and bring mass destruction to our country through Communism." The legislation has gone nowhere.
Equality Act Will Destroy 'God’s Creation'
February 2021: Greene went on several unhinged rants against the proposed Equality Act, which would outlaw anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination nationally. In a speech on the House floor, she predicted apocalyptic consequences if it passes. "God created us male and female," she said. "In his image, he created us. The Equality Act that we are to vote on this week destroys God's creation. It also completely annihilates women's rights and religious freedoms. It can be handled completely different to stop discrimination without destroying women's rights, little girls' rights in sports, and religious freedom, violating everything we hold dear in God's creation."
Anti-Trans Trolling
February 2021: That same month, she trolled a fellow representative, Illinois Democrat Marie Newman, whose office is across the hall from hers. Newman had hung up a transgender outside her office in support of her trans daughter. Greene responded by putting up a sign reading, "There are TWO genders: Male & Female. Trust the Science!" She also tweeted a denunciation of Newman for supporting the Equality Act, saying once again that the act would "destroy women's rights and religious freedoms."
Schools Are 'Teaching Racism,' 'Promoting Sex'
June 2021: Greene joined the chorus of right-wingers saying schools shouldn't teach children that the U.S. has a history of racism or that LGBTQ+ people exist. She tweeted a video of an obviously traumatized child addressing a school board meeting in Indiana and commented, "Teaching racism and promoting sex, homosexuality, & normalizing transgender to children is mental/emotional child abuse." Never mind that schools aren't "teaching racism" or "promoting sex," although some are engaging in much-needed efforts to combat racism, homophobia, and transphobia.
Trans People Have 'Unnatural Fantasies'
July 2021: Greene went all in on trans people again, freaking out over a streamed TV series that spotlighted a trans woman attempting to breastfeed her child (some trans women can breastfeed with the help of hormones and other drugs). To Greene, this was "child abuse" born of "unnatural fantasies," as she said in a tweet. The same month, she condemned fellow Republican Caitlyn Jenner, who was in a long-shot campaign for governor of California just in case Gov. Gavin Newsom was recalled (he wasn't). "Stop promoting this man in a dress," Greene tweeted.
The 'Gazpacho Police'
February 2022: Greene made an infamous gaffe while accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Nazi-like tactics after the Capitol Police conducted a routine security check of a colleague's office. Appearing on the right-wing One America News, Greene referred to "Pelosi's gazpacho police spying on members of Congress, spying on the legislative work that we do, spying on our staff and spying on American citizens that want to come talk to their representatives." Pelosi noted that she has no control over the Capitol Police, while Greene was roasted on social media for confusing "gazpacho" and "Gestapo."
The Party of Pedophilia
April 2022: Greene called three of her fellow Republicans and the entire Democratic Party supporters of pedophilia because they favored confirming Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. Some Republicans had accused Jackson of giving too-light sentences to people who possessed child pornography, although her sentences were similar to those of other judges. Greene tweeted that Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney were "pro-pedophile" because they supported Jackson's confirmation, and on a far-right talk show she said, "The Democrats are the party of pedophiles. The Democrats are the party of princess predators from Disney. The Democrats are the party of teachers, elementary school teachers, trying to transition their elementary school-age children, convince them they're a different gender." The Democrats' identity "is the most disgusting, horrible, evil thing happening in our country," she added.
The Extinction of Straight People
May 2022: Greene joined those pushing the baseless assertion that the mass shooter who went on a deadly rampage at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, was transgender or at least gender-nonconforming -- and she claimed that there's a plot to turn everyone gay or trans. "They just want you to think that all of a sudden the entire population is steadily turning gay or turning trans," Greene said on a social media livestream. "Just generation, generation, generation. ... Probably in about four or five generations, no one will be straight anymore. Everyone will be either gay or trans or nonconforming or whatever the list of 50 or 60 different options there are." On the same livestream, she said tech titan Bill Gates was behind a plot to force all Americans to eat synthetic meat. "The government totally wants to provide surveillance on every part of your life," she said. "They want to know when you're eating. They want to know if you're eating a cheeseburger, which is very bad because Bill Gates wants you to eat his fake meat, which is grown in a peach tree dish." She meant "Petri dish."
Let's Mock Monkeypox!
July 2022: As the spread of monkeypox continued, Greene told an interviewer at a conservative conference that it was not a public health crisis. "People just have to laugh at it, mock it, and reject it ... it's another scam," she said. She asserted that the virus "doesn't affect most of the population," as most of the cases so far have been in men who have sex with men -- but anyone can contract MPV. During the month, she also implied that pedophilia was involved in the outbreak, tweeting, "If Monkeypox is a sexually transmitted disease, why are kids getting it?" It's not actually sexually transmitted but is spread through skin-to-skin contact as well as through clothing and bedding that have come into contact with MPV lesions.
Traitors at Mar-a-Lago
August 2022: Greene, as one might expect, has joined in the condemnation of the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's Florida estate. Anyone who gave information to the FBI is a traitor, she said in an online broadcast. "We now know that there was an FBI informant at Mar-a-Lago -- who is that and how many other FBI informants are around President Trump on a daily basis, working at his clubs, working at Mar-a-Lago or maybe Bedminster or on his staff?" she said. "These are the things I want to know, because they're traitors, they are traitors and they're helping the deep state. These are the enemies within, these are the real enemies, and they are there to purposely create something against President Trump that is not there."
