The Congresswoman is reactionary, mean, and causing obstruction.
Republican Congressman Tom Graves chose not to run for re-election in 2020. He was representing Georgia’s 14th District, and announced that he would step down from Congress in October.
In June of 2020, a primary was held to determine which of the many Republicans running to represent the 14th District of Georgia would be the one to do it. Candidates included: Andy Gunther, Ben Bullock, Matt Laughridge, Kevin Cooke, Bill Hembre, Clayton Fuller, John Barge, and John Cowen (a neurosurgeon). The list also included Marjorie Taylor Greene (a wealthy businesswoman).
Ballotpedia reported the results of that June 2020 primary. Marjorie Taylor Greene got 40.3% of the vote. John Cowan got 21.0% of the vote. Ballotpedia reported that in Georgia, a candidate needs more than 50% of the vote to win the primary outright. A runoff election would be held in August between Marjorie Taylor Greene and John Cowen.
Before the runoff election happened, Politico posted an article in which they reported that Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Facebook page contained “hours of videos” in which she expressed racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views. According to Politico, Greene “suggested that Muslims do not belong in government; thinks black people ‘are held slaves to the Democratic Party’; called George Soros, a Jewish Democratic mega-donor, a Nazi; and said she would feel “proud” to see a Confederate monument if she were black because it symbolizes progress made since the Civil War.”
In July of 2020, Media Matters reported a list of people who were running for Congress in 2020 who were believers in the QAnon conspiracy theories. Marjorie Taylor Greene was on that list. Media Matters reported that in 2018, Greene “posted on Facebook about an “awesome post by Q” and echoed another “Q” post about a conspiracy theory that the Obama administration got MS-13 gang members to kill Democratic staffer Seth Rich. (NPR pointed out in August of 2020 that police have stated that they believe his death was the result of a suspected failed robbery in 2016).
Media Matters also included this paragraph about Marjorie Taylor Green:
…Green has posted the QAnon slogan on Facebook and on Twitter, the latter in response to a tweet defending the legitimacy of “Q” where she also wrote, “Trust the plan” (another catchphrase QAnon supporters use.) She has also tweeted the QAnon-connected hashtag “#GreatAwakening” to far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. She has also appeared in a video where she discussed following QAnon, calling “Q” a “patriot” and “worth listening to,” and in a now-defunct website wrote favorably about the conspiracy theory. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Greene also “has posted a series of tweets defending QAnon, including one” – now deleted – “encouraging her followers to message her with questions so she can ‘walk you through the whole thing.'” In August, Green dubiously claimed to Fox News that she has since chosen “another path” due to “misinformation” from “Q” about the 2018 midterm elections. Greene has also pushed the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory.
According to Ballotpedia, Marjorie Taylor Greene got 59.4% of the vote in the Republican runoff, and John Cowen got 40.6% of the vote. As you can see, neither candidate received a “landslide” of votes. It didn’t matter. The rule in Georgia was that a candidate must have at least 50% of the vote to win an election.
Greene would now need to compete against a Democratic candidate in the 2020 election. Her opponent was Kevin Van Ausdal, an IT specialist with no political experience. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported (in September of 2020) that Ausdal was “a longshot candidate at best”. According to AJC, “…The northwest Georgia district he was competing to represent is overwhelmingly Republican. Outgoing U.S. Rep. Tom Graves captured more than three-quarters of the vote over a little-known Democrat in 2018.”
The Hill reported in September of 2020 that Kevin Van Ausdal withdrew from the race. His reasons were personal. According to AJC, a deputy sheriff went to Ausdal’s door to serve him divorce papers. Part of the proceedings required him to vacate the home that he and his wife shared. Kevin Van Ausdal decided to leave Georgia and move in with his family in Indiana.
According to The Hill, Georgia law holds that a vacancy for a party nomination due to a candidate’s withdrawl can’t be filled within 60 days of an election. Ausdal withdrew from the race 53 days from the November 3, 2020, election. Because of this rule, the Democratic Party was not allowed to choose a different candidate. This left Marjorie Taylor Greene with no opponent for the 2020 election.
In September of 2020, CNN reported that Marjorie Taylor Greene asserted in a tweet that “children should not wear masks”. She posted that tweet while the coronavirus pandemic was going on. CNN provided information about why Greene’s tweet is wrong and against the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC):
…Public health officials say masks can help prevent the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 6.3 million people in the US and claimed the lives of about 190,000, according to CNN’s latest figures. The CDC recommends that people 2 and older “wear masks in public settings around people who don’t live in your household and when you can’t stay six feet away from others.”…
Ballotpedia posted the results of the 2020 election for Georgia’s 14th district. Kevin Van Ausdal got 25.3% of the vote – even after withdrawing from the race. Marjorie Taylor Greene got 74.5% of the vote. One would presume that a person who is running unopposed would win in a landslide. It is an indication that Republicans in that district did not consider Greene to be the best choice.
Here’s a brief look at some of the other horrible things that Marjorie Taylor Greene has said or done:
September 4, 2020: Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon supporter likely to join Congress this November, posted a Facebook picture on Thursday of herself holding a gun next to images of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Talib.
“Squad’s worst nightmare” said the text at the bottom of the image, referring to the nickname for the group of young leftist women of color in Congress.
The image has since been taken down by Facebook for violating the site’s policies, a spokesperson told Buzzfeed News.
In the post, Greene called Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and Talib “hate America leftists [who] want to take this country down.”
We need strong conservative Christians to go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart,” Greene wrote, using hyperpolarized rhetoric meant to divide the country that many Republicans have adopted and was a central theme of the party’s convention in August. (Buzzfeed News)
November 7, 2020: After winning her election, but before being sworn into office, Greene used her social media to accuse “The Democrats, Big Tech and the Fake News Media” of trying to steal the election. Several of her posts about the election have been blocked by Twitter for containing misleading content, which in turn have only fueled her claims of “censorship” by social media platforms…(Yahoo News).
November 13, 2020: She objected to being made to wear a mask inside the Capitol. (Yahoo News). Greene tweeted: “Our first session of New Member Orientation covered COVID in Congress. Masks, masks, masks…. I proudly told my freshman class that masks are oppressive. In GA, we work out, shop, go to restaurants, go to work, and school without masks. My body, my choice. #FreeYourFace”
January 4, 2021: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R.Ga.) donned a mask with the words “Trump won” as she walked onto the House floor on Sunday. “Just sworn in,” Taylor Greene said in a tweet. “It’s an honor to represent the people of Northwest Georgia! Time to get to work.” … She posed a photo of herself online earlier Monday with a caption claiming Trump won the presidential election he lost to President-elect Joe Biden. (The Hill)
January 6-7, 2021: Congress convened a joint session to count electoral votes by state and confirm the results of the 2020 presidential election. Greene voted against certifying the electoral votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania. The House rejected both objections by a vote of 121-303 for Arizona and 138-282 for Pennsylvania (Ballotpedia).
January 11, 2021: …Even after the tear gas cleared and the Capitol was secured, more than 135 House Republicans, including the party’s two top leaders, ultimately voted to throw out millions of lawfully cast votes, fulfilling the rioters demands and answering Mr. Trump’s call for Congress to subvert the election results in his favor.
But a handful of Mr. Trump’s most loyal allies in the House had gone even further in the days and weeks before the riot, urging their supporters in the days and weeks before the riot, urging their supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 to make a defiant last stand to keep him in power. They linked arms with the organizers of the protest and used inflammatory, bellicose language to describe the stakes.
Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, first-term lawmakers who ran as outspoken defenders of Mr. Trump, referred to the day as Republicans’ “1776 moment”…
…Some of Mr Trump’s closest allies in Congress, including Mr. Brooks, Mr. Gosar, Mr. Biggs, and Ms. Greene, met with him at the White House in December to discuss their drive to overturn the election results. Lawmakers present described the meeting as a fairly dry one, centered on how the process would play out on the House and Senate floors…(The New York Times)
January 13, 2021: So many surreal, terrifying images have come out of the Capitol over the past week. On Wednesday, Republican congresswoman and QAnon supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia provided yet another one when she wore a face mask with the word “CENSORED” written across it, while speaking into a literal microphone during the House vote to impeach President Trump, her words broadcast far and wide.
Both Republicans and Democrats have used face masks to express themselves during the pandemic. But Greene has made a point to use the protective covering – or lack thereof – specifically to spread conspiracy theories, false information, and threats. She’s broadcast her beliefs with masks reading “TRUMP WON” and “STOP THE STEAL.” On Tuesday, she wore a mask that said “MOLON LABE,” a Greek phrase of defiance that’s been co-opted as a gun-rights slogan. It translates to “come and take [them]”…
…Clearly, Greene is not being censored. Her message was meant to be in support of President Trump, who has been barred from using social-media platforms like Twitter in the last week, on the grounds that he has been using the platform to incite violence and unrest. But the juxtaposition of Greene’s face mask with the microphone on Wednesday was a disorienting image, nonetheless. It’s a fitting encapsulation of the MAGA crowd’s beliefs – that Trump is faultless for helping to incite a riot, and that the prospect of facing consequences is an affront to their liberty. (The Cut)
January 17, 2021: Twitter suspended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R.Ga., for 12 hours Sunday, saying that she has repeatedly run afoul of the company’s misinformation policy.
“The account referenced has been temporarily locked out for multiple violations of our civic integrity policy,” a Twitter spokesperson said.
Greene’s most recent posts included one in which she made the false claims about widespread voter fraud in Georgia in both in the November election and in the Jan. 5 Senate runoffs and another series of tweets in which she repeated more debunked claims and called Georgia’s elections officials “morons.”
Twitter restricted those posts from further promotion and slapped them with warning labels. Her account remained live, but she is unable to post…(CNBC)
January 26, 2021: …But Greene’s reputation as chief engineer on the Crazy Train as most firmly secured by her hustle in filing an article of impeachment against Joe Biden the day after his inauguration, in which she claimed that he had “abused the power of the Office of the Vice President, enabling bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors, by allowing his son to influence the domestic party of a foreign nation and accept various benefits – including financial compensation – from foreign nationals in exchange for certain favors.”
The single article is really all about Hunter Biden’s alleged misconduct in Ukraine, China, and Russia… Greene thinks Biden should be impeached for “enabling” bribery and other misdeeds by his son…. (Intelligencer – via MSN)
It should be noted that Greene’s bill (H.RES 57) has zero cosponsors. It was introduced to the House of Representatives on January 21, 2021. The bill has not been sent to committee, has never been voted on, and has stalled. It appears that Greene was unaware that the U.S. Senate had already investigated alleged wrongdoing by Biden and his son, and was unable to find any.
The New York Times posted an article titled “Republican Inquiry Finds No Evidence of Wrongdoing by Biden”. It was posted on September 23, 2020. From the article:
An election-year investigation by Senate Republicans into corruption allegations against Joseph R. Biden Jr., and his son, Hunter, involving Ukraine found no evidence of improper influence or wrongdoing by the former vice president, closing out an inquiry its leaders had hoped would tarnish the Democratic presidential nominee.
The investigation found that Hunter Biden had “cashed in” on his father’s name to close lucrative business deals around the world. It concluded that his work for Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company then mired in a corruption scandal, while the former vice president was directing American policy toward Kyiv had given the appearance of a conflict of interest and alarmed some State Department officials.
But an 87-page report summing up the findings, released jointly on Wednesday by the Senate Homeland Security and Finance Committees, contained no evidence that the elder Mr. Biden improperly manipulated American policy toward Ukraine or committed any other misdeed. In fact, investigators heard witness testimony that rebutted those charges…
January 29, 2021: Representative Cori Bush (Democrat) tweeted: “A maskless Marjorie Taylor Greene & her staff berated me in a hallway. She targeted me & others on social media. I’m moving my office away from hers for my team’s safety. I’ve called for the expulsion of members who incited the insurrection from Day 1. Bring H.Res 25 to a vote.”
A few things to know: Cory Bush is black. Marjorie Taylor Greene is a bully. H.Res 25 calls for the Committee on Ethics to investigate, and issue a report on, whether any and all actions taken by Members of the 117th Congress who sought to overturn the 2020 Presidential election violated their oath of office to uphold the Constitution or the Rules of the House of Representatives, and should face sanction, including removal from the House of Representatives.
Later on January 29, 2021, Cori Bush tweeted: “On Jan. 13 – after members tested positive for COVID-19 after being locked down with her on Jan. 6 – Marjorie Taylor Greene came up behind me, loud and unmasked. I called out to her to put hers on. Her staff yelled at me, “Stop inciting violence with Black Lives Matter.”
The tweet included an official statement:
“On January 13, I was walking with my staff to vote. I was in the tunnel between the Cannon Office Building and the Capitol when Marjorie Taylor Greene came up from behind me, ranting loudly into her phone while not wearing a mask. This took place one day after multiple of my House colleagues announced they had tested positive for COVID-19 after being in a room with Taylor Greene during the white supremacist attack on the Capitol.
“Out if concern for the health of my staff, other members of Congress, and their congressional staff, I repeatedly called out to her to put on a mask. Taylor Greene and her staff responded by berating me, with one staffer yelling, “Stop inciting violence with Black Lives Matter.”
“Previously, Taylor Greene lashed out at me on Twitter on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to falsely accuse me of leading a mob that called for “the rape, murder, and burning of the home” of the McCloskey family in St. Louis – thus naming me as a target to her hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers.
“In the context of Taylor Greene’s repeated endorsements of executing Democratic politicians before taking office, Taylor Greene’s renewed, repeated antagonization of the movement for Black lives in the last month directed towards me personally is cause for serious concern.
“All of this led to my decision to move my office away from Taylor Greene’s for the safety of my team. My office is being relocated from the Longworth House Office Building…”
February 4, 2021: The House of Representatives voted 230-199 to remove Greene from her assignments on the Labor and the Budget and Education committees. The vote was a response to multiple controversial remarks made by the first-term lawmaker, including a claim that school shootings are staged events. The House Rules Committee voted to advance the resolution on February 3 after Republican leadership declined to take action on her comments. (Ballotpedia)
February 24, 2021: The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill called the Equality Act. It would enshrine legal protections for LGBTQ Americans by amending existing civil rights laws to prevent businesses and institutions from discriminating against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill passed in a vote of 224 YEA to 206 NAY, with three Republicans joining the Democrats and voting “yes”. (CBS News).
On February 24, 2021, Congresswoman Marie Newman tweeted: “Our neighbor, @RepMTG, tried to block the Equality Act because she believes prohibiting discrimination against trans Americans is “disgusting, immoral, and evil.” Thought we’d put up our Transgender flag so she can look at it every time she opens up her door. [winking smiley face emoji] [transgender flag emoji]” The tweet included a video of herself adding the flag beside her door, and a view of Representative Greene’s door across the hallway.
On February 25, 2021, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green put up a poster outside her office door that said “There are TWO genders: MALE & FEMALE. ‘Trust The Science!” (The Hill).
Marjorie Taylor Green is wrong. In 2019, Scientific American posted an article titled “Stop Using Phony Science to Justify Transphobia”. It was written by Simón(e) D Sun, a doctoral candidate in the Tsien Lab at New York University’s Neuroscience Institute. From the article:
…Nearly everyone in middle school biology learned that if you’ve got XX chromosomes, you’re a female; if you’ve got XY, you’re a male. This tired simplification is great for teaching the importance of chromosomes but betrays the true nature of biological sex. The popular belief that your sex arises from your chromosomal makeup is wrong. The truth is, your biological sex isn’t carved in stone, but a living system with the potential for change.
Why? Because biological sex is far more complicated than XX or XY (or XXY, or just X). XX individuals could present with male gonads. XY individuals can have ovaries. How? Through a set of complex genetic signals that, in the course of a human’s development, begins with a small group of cells called the bipotential primordium and a gene called SRY.
A newly fertilized embryo initially develops without any indication of its sex. At around five weeks, a group of cells clump together to form the bipotential primordium. These cells are neither male nor female but have the potential to turn into testes, ovaries or neither. After the primordium forms, SRY—a gene on the Y chromosome discovered in 1990, thanks to the participation of intersex XX males and XY females—might be activated.
Though it is still not fully understood, we know SRY plays a role in pushing the primordium toward male gonads. But SRY is not a simple on/off switch, it’s a precisely timed start signal, the first chord of the “male gonad” symphony. A group of cells (instrument sections) must all express SRY (notes of the chord), at the right time (conductor?). Without that first chord, the embryo will play a different symphony: female gonads, or something in between.
And there’s more! While brief and coordinated SRY-activation initiates the process of male-sex differentiation, genes like DMRT1 and FOXL2 maintain certain sexual characteristics during adulthood. If these genes stop functioning, gonads can change and exhibit characteristics of the opposite sex. Without these players constantly active, certain components of your biological sex can change…
On February 25, 2021, Intelligencer provided some additional details. Representative Newman is the mother of a transgender daughter.
March 10, 2021: Forty House Republicans on Wednesday voted against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s latest motion to adjourn, yet another sign that her party is growing increasingly frustrated with the Georgia Republican’s procedural delay tactics.
That figure was more than double the 18 Republicans who voted against her motion last week to end House business for the day.
Some of those Republicans who have bucked Greene and GOP leaders have correctly predicted that the number of “no” votes will only grow as Greene continues to force more of these votes.
They’ve complained that these unexpected votes, which do not appear on the House schedule, have disrupted meetings and congressional hearings and have no purpose other than gumming up the floor…
…Like the other futile Greene votes, Wednesday’s motion to adjourn failed, by a roll call of 149-235…
…Greene on Wednesday said she was trying to stop Congress from passing President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, a “massive woke progressive Democrat wish list.” And she issued a warning that Republicans who crossed her would be seen as siding with the Democratic stimulus…
…But Greene’s antics did little more than stall Biden’s relief bill for an hour or so. The Democratic-controlled House is on track to pass the package on a party-line vote and send it to Biden’s desk later Wednesday (The Hill)
March 11, 2021: The governor of Guam offered to send Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) a history book after the conservative firebrand incorrectly referred to the U.S. territory as a foreign land during a speech railing against federal financial aid going to other countries.
Krystal Paco-San Agustin, the communications director for Gov. Lourdes Leon Guerrero (D) told The Guam Post on Thursday that they would be “more than happy to send Representative Greene’s office a copy of ‘Destiny’s Landfall: A History of Guam.”
Del. Michael San Nicholas (D), a non-voting delegate representing Guam in Congress, told the outlet that he would be delivering Greene “delicious Chamorro Chip Cookies as part of our ongoing outreach to new members to introduce them to our wonderful island of Guam.”
Guam has been part of the United States since 1899, and people born on the island in the west Pacific Ocean have been considered U.S. citizens since 1950. Guam’s roughly 170,000 residents do pay federal taxes but not federal income tax… (The Hill)
March 19, 2021: Democratic Representative Jimmy Gomez formally introduced a resolution to expel Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green from Congress, suggesting that she “advocated violence against our peers, the Speaker and our government.” Seventy-two Democrats have supported this resolution; zero Republicans. (CNN).
March 19, 2021: Twitter said Friday it mistakenly suspended the account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who is facing a push from dozens of House Democrats to expel her from Congress.
The social media giant, which had previously suspended the conspiracy-embracing lawmaker’s account, said the most recent lockout had been lifted.
“We use a combination of technology and human review to enforce the Twitter Rules across the service,” a spokesperson for the company told CNBC in a statement.
“In this case, our automated systems took enforcement action on the account referenced in error,” the statement said. “This action has been reversed, and access to the account has been reinstated.”…(CNBC)
Marjory Taylor Greene needs to go. We cannot have a healthy, functional, Congress with Greene spreading QAnon conspiracy theories, harassing other members of the House of Representatives, and repeatedly forcing unannounced votes to adjourn the House for the day.
We shouldn’t allow a member of Congress to walk around wearing masks that say “TRUMP WON” and “STOP THE STEAL” long after President Biden had been inaugurated. Wearing a mask that says “CENSORED”, while speaking into a microphone on the House floor (which may have been recorded by CSPAN and picked up by news organizations) is ridiculous.
My hope is that the Democrats will be able to expel Marjorie Taylor Greene. In my opinion, she acts more like a petulant 12-year-old than a full-grown adult. She’s not mature enough to be in Congress.
Marjorie Taylor Greene Must Go is a post written by Jen Thorpe on Book of Jen and is not allowed to be copied to other sites. If you enjoyed this blog post please consider supporting me on Ko-fi. Thank you!