Marjorie Taylor Greene says ‘media just as guilty as QAnon’ as she refuses to take blame for her own bigoted remarks

Controversial lawmaker defended herself ahead of vote to remove her from committees

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
Thursday 04 February 2021 20:30 GMT
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Marjorie Taylor Greene says ‘media just as guilty as QAnon’ as she refuses to take blame for her own bigoted remarks
Marjorie Taylor Greene says ‘media just as guilty as QAnon’ as she refuses to take blame for her own bigoted remarks (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
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Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed the ‘media is just as guilty as QAnon’ as she refused to take the blame for her own history of bigoted remarks.

The Georgia congresswoman made the bizarre claim from the House floor as she defended herself ahead of a vote to strip her off her committee assignments.

"Will we allow the media that is just as guilty as QAnon of presenting truth and lies to divide us?" she said during her ten minute speech as she wore a mask that said "Free Speech."

Democrats have forced a vote to remove Ms Greene from the Education and Labor, and Budget committees because of her past incendiary comments on social media.

In them she supported the execution of leading Democrats, denied 9/11, and she was caught on video harassing Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg, while calling the tragedy a false flag event.

Ms Greene told her house colleagues that they only knew who she was by how the "mainstream media has portrayed me."

"What you need to know about me is that I am a very regular American, just like the people I represent in my district and most people across this country," she said.

She added that she had not been interested in politics until Donald Trump had run for and won the White House in 2016.

And she even claimed she enjoyed the ex-president's "plain talk but not the offensive things."

She went on to say that in 2017 she had started to see "things in the news that didn't make sense to me", including claims of Russian collusion with Donald Trump, and she began investigating them on the internet.

Ms Taylor Greene described the Russian claims as "conspiracy theories also, that have been proven so."

"I started looking up things on the internet, asking questions, like most people do every day, I used Google," she said.

She admitted becoming "very interested" in QAnon in 2017 and that she had posted about the satanic child-eating conspiracy theory group.

"Here is the problem, during 2018, because I was upset about things, and didn't trust the government really, because the people here were not doing the things I thought they should be doing for us, and I want you to know that a lot of Americans do not trust our government, and that is sad," she said.

"The problem with that is that I was allowed to believe things that were not true, and I would ask questions about them and talk about them and that is absolutely what I regret.

"Because if it was not for the Facebooks posts and comments that I liked in 2018 I would not be standing here today, and you could not point a finger and accuse me of anything wrong as I have lived a very good life that I am proud of and my family is proud of."

The lawmaker said that in late 2018 she began to find "lies and things that were not true" in QAnon posts and she "stopped believing it."

"Any source of information that is a mix of truth and a mix of lies is dangerous," she added.

She then turned her attention to school shootings and admitted that "they are absolutely real."

And she said that when she was 16 her high school went through a hostage taking incident when a pupil brought guns to another class.

"I know the fear that David Hogg had that day, I know the fear that these kids have," she added.

"And this is why, and I say this sincerely with all my heart as I love our kids, every single one of your children, I believe children at school should never be left unprotected, they should be just as protected as we were with 30,000 National Guardsman, our children are our future and out most precious resource."

Ms Taylor Greene then admitted that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were real.

"I also want to tell you that 9/11 absolutely happened. I remember crying all day long watching it on the news and it is a tragedy for anyone to say it didn't happen. I do not believe that it was fake," she said.

She then attacked big media companies for the way they have portrayed her and slammed Twitter for censoring her while allowing people "to retweet porn."

Then she told lawmakers that she had never mentioned QAnon during her election campaign or since she won office, and blamed "cancel culture" for the attacks on her.

"These were words of the past and they do not represent me, they do not represent my district and they do not represent my values," she said.

"I am a passionate person, I am a competitor and I am a fighter," she added as she criticised abortion.

"It is the worst thing this country has ever committed," she said.

She then turned her attack on the media, that she claimed "divides" the country.

"What shall we do as Americans, shall we stay divided like this? Will we let the media, which is just as guilty as QAnon of presenting truth and lies to divide us? Will we allow ourselves to be addicted to hate and hating one another? I hope not, it is not the future I want for my children or for your children," she said to finish her speech.

Her attacks on the media and defence of her own actions was met with skepticism from Democrats.

"“To equate the media with QAnon is just beyond the pale," said congressman Jim McGovern of Massachusetts.

He added that he "did not hear a disavowment or an apology" for "antisemitic and Islamophobic remarks."

And he noted that Ms Taylor Greene had "profited off hurtful remarks" with a big fundraising effort over the last few weeks.

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