Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene continues to distinguish herself as an opponent of the basic tenets of U.S. democracy and basic f’ing decency. She’s already spent months pushing for the 2020 presidential election to be overturned. She’s done a lot of assassination-friendly social media. She harassed the teenage survivors of a mass shooting. And on Wednesday night she had a local television news crew threatened with arrest for asking a question at a town hall event.
Greene continues to be a member of the House Republican caucus in good standing, notwithstanding a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy saying that McCarthy “plans to have a conversation with the Congresswoman” about her history of positive responses to assassination threats against people like Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Sign and send the petition: Congress must expel Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for being a direct threat.
On Wednesday night, reporters were told that they could attend the Dalton, Georgia, event but not ask questions or speak to attendees. When a reporter from Channel 3 defied that and tried to ask a question, first a staffer and then a sheriff’s deputy told the crew to leave, with the sheriff’s deputy threatening them with arrest for criminal trespass. Attendees at the event were allowed to ask questions that had been submitted ahead of time, so Greene was really going to the mat for exclusively softball questions.
To be sure, she did have a lot to dodge—that whole “yay, assassination” thing, for one—and her refusal to take reporters’ questions came as her social media profiles were being scrubbed. Is this going to be how Republicans justify continuing to protect her? Keeping her from responding to reporters and count on the furor over her social media history dying down once there’s nothing left to see?
Marjorie Taylor Greene is a hateful, vicious person dedicated to spreading lies and conspiracy theories. That’s not going to change. The question is whether Republican leaders are going to reject that, or continue embracing it as a core part of their party’s identity.