A guide to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s conspiracy theories and toxic rhetoric

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published

Marjorie Taylor Greene and the Republican Party

Molly Butler / Media Matters

Portions of this guide were originally published on October 15, 2020. It has been updated with new examples in light of Greene becoming a member of Congress. 

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a Republican member of Congress from Georgia who has recently been appointed by her GOP colleagues to serve on the House Budget Committee and the House Committee on Education and Labor.

Greene is a conspiracy theorist who has also promoted racist, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, and violent rhetoric. She made many of those remarks as a right-wing commentator before she ran for Congress. 

The following is a guide to Greene’s conspiracy theories and toxic rhetoric.

Greene is a QAnon conspiracy theorist. The QAnon conspiracy theory is based on cryptic posts to online message boards from an anonymous user known as “Q" that have spread rampantly on social media and among fringe right-wing media. QAnon conspiracy theorists essentially believe that former President Donald Trump has been secretly working to take down the purported “deep state,” a supposed cabal of satanic high-ranking officials who they claim are operating pedophile rings. The FBI has labeled the conspiracy theory as a potential domestic terror threat. Greene has repeatedly expressed support for QAnon, including posting pro-QAnon messages on social media and calling “Q” a “patriot” who is “worth listening to.” 

Greene has a history of bigoted comments. Politico's Ally Mutnick and Melanie Zanona reported in June that Greene has “suggested that Muslims do not belong in government; thinks black people ‘are held slaves to the Democratic Party’; called George Soros, a Jewish Democratic megadonor, 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.”

Greene heavily promoted the false claim that Trump actually won the 2020 election. Greene frequently promoted the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump. She also objected to the certification of President Joe Biden's victory. Greene's rhetoric helped incite the January 6 attack on the Capitol. 

Greene endorsed the conspiracy theory that the Sandy Hook school shooting was staged. In June 2018, Greene agreed with a Facebook commenter who claimed that “none of the school shootings were real or done by the ones who were supposedly arrested for them,” including the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Parents of the Sandy Hook victims have denounced Greene. 

Greene on Facebook in 2018: Parkland school shooting was a false flag planned event. Greene (R-GA) agreed with a June 2018 Facebook comment that the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was actually a “false flag” planned event. She agreed with a separate 2018 Facebook commenter who claimed that “none of the school shootings were real or done by the ones who were supposedly arrested for them,” including at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Parkland survivors and families of the victims have heavily criticized Greene. 

Greene: “I am told that Nancy Pelosi tells Hillary Clinton several times a month that ‘we need another school shooting’ in order to persuade the public to want strict gun control.” Greene wrote that in a December 2018 Facebook post. 

Greene heckled Parkland survivor and activist David Hogg, calling him a “coward.” Greene's taunting of Hogg happened during a visit to Washington, D.C., in March 2019. 

Greene repeatedly endorsed using violence against Democrats. CNN’s Em Steck and Andrew Kaczynski reported that “Greene repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before being elected to Congress. … In one post, from January 2019, Greene liked a comment that said ‘a bullet to the head would be quicker’ to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In other posts, Greene liked comments about executing FBI agents who, in her eyes, were part of the ‘deep state’ working against Trump.” 

Greene agreed that 9/11 “was done by our own gov[ernment].” On Greene's Facebook page in June 2018, a commenter wrote a long comment which included the false claim that “911 was done by our own Gov." Greene responded in the comments thread by writing, “That is all true.” She also liked that comment. 

Greene falsely claimed that there’s no evidence a plane crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. In a 2018 video, Greene discussed the September 11 attacks and falsely said that there was “the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon. It's odd there's never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon.” The claim that there was “never any evidence” of a plane hitting the Pentagon is a refrain of 9/11 conspiracy theories. (In reality, video and photographic evidence show a plane hit the Pentagon.) After she was heavily criticized, Greene tweeted that she was supposedly “being attacked for my opposition to open borders and globalist neocon nation building wars” and said: “Some people claimed a missile hit the Pentagon. I now know that is not correct. The problem is our government lies to us so much to protect the Deep State, it's hard sometimes to know what is real and what is not.”

Greene pushed conspiracy theory about the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jim Galloway wrote that in a 2017 video, “Greene mused about the possibility that the Las Vegas massacre was a massive conspiracy intended to help pass gun control measures. … Five months later, on Facebook, Greene passed along rumors of an FBI cover-up in its investigation of the Las Vegas massacre. Federal and local authorities would eventually conclude that Paddock did indeed act alone, a verdict that Greene says she now accepts.” 

Greene visited Congress and tried to get Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who are Muslim, to retake their oaths on the Bible. In February 2019, Greene filmed herself unsuccessfully trying to interrogate Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). During the video, she falsely claimed that they're illegitimate members of Congress because they took their congressional oaths of office on the Quran and said she wanted to make them retake their oaths on the Bible. Greene also said she wanted to tell them they “really should go back to the Middle East if they support Sharia.” In addition to being bigoted, her remarks are also ignorant as their oaths were legitimate and neither representative is from the Middle East. 

Greene shared an anti-Muslim video that portrays Jewish people as trying to destroy Europe through immigration. In December 2018, Greene shared an anti-refugee video and claimed, “This is what the UN wants all over the world.” The video features anti-Muslim propaganda, quotes an anti-Semitic Holocaust denier saying that “Zionist supremacists have schemed to promote immigration and miscegenation” and, as one reporter wrote, “implies that Jews are at the heart of a project to destroy Europe as we know it.” 

Greene penned a conspiracy theory that the deadly 2018 Camp Fire in California was started by a space laser beam run by nefarious entities, including “Rothschild Inc.” Greene wrote a November 2018 Facebook post in which she speculated that, among others, a senior official at “Rothschild Inc, international investment banking firm,” was somehow involved in the 2018 Camp Fire and suggested the fire was caused by a beam from “space solar generators.” Jewish groups have criticized Greene for the anti-Semitism in her conspiracy theory. 

Greene endorsed a deranged conspiracy theory about Democrats and satanic child murder. On Facebook in February 2018, Greene endorsed a conspiracy theory -- known as “Frazzledrip” -- that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was videotaped murdering a child during a satanic ritual and she then ordered a hit on a police officer who had seen the video to cover it up. 

Greene in 2019 suggested Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced with a body double. During a February 2019 appearance on a streaming program, Greene said that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- who died in September 2020 -- didn't really make a public appearance, implying she was replaced by a body double. 

Greene falsely implicated Hillary Clinton in the death of John F. Kennedy Jr. During a video that was posted in 2018, Greene said of Clinton and Kennedy Jr., who died in a 1999 plane crash: “So she has to run for Senate, right? So she runs for Senate in New York City. OK, so she becomes senator in New York City. And yes, I could dive into Kennedy getting killed in the plane crash because isn't it interesting that he had announced he was going to run for Senate just before he died in a mysterious plane crash? But anyway, so that's another one of those Clinton murders, right?” 

Greene liked a meme claiming that Democrats have used the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for human trafficking, pedophilia, and organ harvesting. Greene liked a meme that was posted to her Facebook page in June 2018 claiming that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Clinton, former President Barack Obama “and their Democrat friends … can’t have Trump repeal DACA as it would show DACA was used by them … for human trafficking pedophilia in high places and organ harvesting.” (The meme has since been removed.) 

Greene said that “the only way you get your freedoms back is it’s earned with the price of blood.’” Mothers Jones’ Mark Follman reported that in an October 27 video, Greene “warned ominously about fending off ‘socialists’ like Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, claiming they would confiscate Americans’ guns. ‘If this generation doesn’t stand up and defend freedom, it’s gone,’ Greene said, addressing viewers. ‘And once it’s gone, freedom doesn’t come back by itself. The only way you get your freedoms back is it’s earned with the price of blood.’” 

Greene called the 2018 pipe bomb packages to members of Congress and others a hoax. Shortly before the 2018 midterm elections, pipe bombs were mailed to CNN, prominent Democrats, and members of Congress. Greene responded to the news by telling her social media followers that the packages were a hoax perpetrated by the targeted people and the left in an “attempt to create a blue wave.” 

Greene claimed that the Obama administration used MS-13 to assassinate Seth Rich. Greene said in a 2018 video that the Obama administration had the violent MS-13 street gang murder Democratic staffer Seth Rich. Greene’s unhinged claim echoes a post by someone purporting to be “Q.” 

Greene falsely claimed that Obama is “a Muslim” and that he “opened up our borders to an invasion by Muslims.” In 2018, Greene falsely claimed that former President Barack Obama and former senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett are Muslims, stating: “Yes. I do believe he is a Muslim. And yes, Valerie Jarrett is, too.” She used those purported facts to launch a bigoted attack that “Obama opened up our borders to an invasion by Muslims.” 

Greene promoted the conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton has killed her political enemies. NBC News' Brandy Zadrozny reported in August that Greene penned “dozens of articles” for the now-defunct conspiracy theory website American Truth Seekers and she “wrote favorably of the QAnon conspiracy theory, suggested that Hillary Clinton murdered her political enemies, and ruminated on whether mass shootings were orchestrated to dismantle the Second Amendment.”

Greene pushed the Pizzagate conspiracy theory and speculated that the white nationalist riot in Charlottesville was an “inside job.” CNN's Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck reported in August that Greene's writing on the American Truth Seekers website included “speculating that the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to one counter-protester's death was an ‘inside job’ and promoting a debunked conspiracy alleging some Democratic Party leaders were running a human-trafficking and pedophilia ring -- known as ‘Pizzagate’-- was real.” 

Greene posted a picture of herself holding a gun next to a montage of members of “the Squad.” As CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi wrote that in September 2018, Greene posted “an image of herself holding a gun alongside images of Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib and encouraged going on the ‘offense against these socialists.’” Facebook later removed the photo for violating its policies. 

Greene praised militia members as people who can protect the country from “a tyrannical government.” In 2018, Greene gave a speech after various militia members appeared on stage at a rally in Washington, D.C. She praised the militia members as being “the very definition of our Second Amendment. Because when our government gets to a place where it’s a tyrannical government, we’re guaranteed the right to bear arms and make a state militia so that they do not run us over.” 

Greene attacked women who are gun safety activists by saying they “need to grow some balls.” In a 2019 video, Greene said of the gun safety organization Moms Demand Action: "All these moms that demand action -- moms that demand action: You need to grow some balls. And the problem is you don't have balls. We need dads. Because most dads, unless they're a bunch of beta male, wussy, feminized men, are going to say, ‘Yeah, put guys, put good guys, good women with guns at our kids’ schools and protect our kids and stop these damn school shootings.’” She later claimed that men are being “whipped by these women,” who are purportedly “attacking men in this country.”

After the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Greene called her Democratic colleagues “the enemies to the American people” and vowed they “will be held accountable.” Shortly after the pro-Trump insurrection at the Capitol, Greene used her Facebook and Twitter accounts to attack her Democrats for supposedly being “enemies to the American people.” She added that they “will be held accountable.”