Georgia Democrats on the state and federal level are calling for Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to resign from Congress, citing Greene’s support for the conspiracy theories that led to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Congresswoman Nikema Williams said Friday she plans to introduce legislation with California Rep. Sara Jacobs next week to censure Greene, who represents northwest Georgia, and call for her removal from the House.
“Congresswoman Greene’s comments and actions are dangerous, unpatriotic, and a clear threat to every Member of Congress,” Williams said in a statement. “It would be irresponsible for us to allow her to use the ‘People’s House’ as a platform to peddle discredited conspiracy theories that only fan the flames of hatred and violence. This is the same rhetoric that provoked the lawlessness we saw during the January 6th Domestic Terrorist attack. We must do everything we can to prevent similar events from occurring ever again.”
Democratic state Rep. Matthew Wilson of Brookhaven filed his own resolution in the Georgia House Friday, urging Greene to step down. Like Williams, Wilson references Greene’s promotion of baseless conspiracy theories that Democrats stole the presidential election from former President Donald Trump, fanning the flames that led to the Capitol riots, as well as her support for statements calling for the executions of political figures, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
At least 40 other Democratic state lawmakers have signed on to his resolution.
If the House votes to censure Greene, which requires a simple majority, she will have to stand in the House well and listen while Pelosi reads a list of complaints against her. Neither bill would force Greene to leave office, but Wilson said his resolution is a way to hold Greene accountable.
“She is a representative, not just of her district, but she also represents Georgia in the Congress, and has sworn an oath to protect the U.S. Constitution, which is similar to the oath that we take as state legislators, and it is incumbent upon us to speak out when our elected representatives are violating that oath and misrepresenting the values of Georgia,” Wilson said.
Prior to her run for office, Greene has promoted conspiracies connected with QAnon, a far-right work of collaborative fiction that paints Trump as the leader of a resistance against a cabal of elite pedophiles running the world.
Greene, who filed articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden a day after his inauguration, was sworn in Jan. 3, and her time in Congress has been marked by a series of controversies stemming from her actions and social media posts.
At a press conference Thursday, Pelosi said the House will likely need more funding for security because “the enemy is within the House of Representatives.”
“We have members of Congress who want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence on other members of Congress,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi and other House Democrats called for Greene to be removed from the Education and Labor Committee citing social media posts from before her candidacy in which she said deadly school shootings were staged to help advance gun control legislation.
News outlets have been combing through Greene’s social media and turning up outlandish statements from before her candidacy.
Media Matters on Thursday published a Facebook post in which Greene suggested a laser or solar beam reflected from a satellite may have caused the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 and burned more than 150,000 acres in California.
Taylor’s post, which implied the involvement of the Rothschilds, a wealthy Jewish family often the target of anti-Semitic conspiracies, caused #JewishSpaceLasers to trend on Twitter.
In a defiant statement Friday directed to the “radical left-wing Democrat mob and the Fake News media trying to take me out,” Greene said attacks on her have inspired supporters to send messages of support and more than $1.6 million in campaign donations.
“Every attack. Every lie. Every smear strengthens my base of support at home and across the country because people know the truth and are fed up with the lies,” she said.
The freshman Greene pledged to be a leader in the post-Trump conservative movement.
“President Trump taught us how to defend America First values. That’s why Democrats have the smallest majority in the House since WWII,” she said. “I will lead the charge to be a voice for the Silent Majority. I’ll always have your back, because I know you have mine. Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope. More MAGA reinforcements are on the way. Let’s win BIG for Republicans in 2022!”
