Psaki Blocks Greene Conspiracy Theory Talk at Briefings

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s name has been in the news a lot this week, but White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has made it clear the Georgia congresswoman is not a welcome topic of conversation at her news briefings.

“We don’t want to elevate conspiracy theories further in the briefing room, so I’m going to leave it at that,” Psaki said in response to a question about Greene on Friday.

Greene has come under fire after CNN reported Tuesday that the Republican had expressed support for the execution of several prominent Democratic lawmakers in 2018 and 2019 via her social media channels. In one instance, the CNN report alleges that Greene liked a Facebook comment saying “a bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from office.

Greene tweeted a response to the article, saying: “Over the years, I’ve had teams of people manage my pages. Many posts have been liked. Many posts have been shared. Some did not represent my views. Especially the ones that CNN is about to spread across the internet.”

Then video surfaced of Greene in 2019 shouting questions at David Hogg, a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting, and calling him a “coward.” At the time, Hogg was on Capitol Hill visiting lawmakers to discuss gun control laws.

Media Matters for America reported that Greene agreed with Facebook posts that called the Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Sandy Hook school shootings “false flag” planned events.

Psaki was first asked Wednesday if the White House had any comment on the Greene controversies. 

“We don’t,” she said. “And I’m not going to speak further about her, I think, in this briefing room.”

Greene has supported QAnon and a number of other bizarre conspiracy theories, which was known before she was elected last year. QAnon believes that former President Donald Trump was fighting a secret war against a Democratic-run ring of Satan-worshipping pedophiles.

At her town hall meeting in Dallas, Georgia, on Thursday night, Greene repeated more debunked conspiracy theories, claiming there was fraud in the presidential election that helped Joe Biden defeat Trump — the same false claims that fueled the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. 

“We had done a lot of work in our preparation, talked to a lot of people, looked at a lot of evidence that I think still needs to be looked at and should be presented in court,” she told her constituents. “I still believe that. 

“This wasn’t a conspiracy of several people that got together and created a story. This is literally thousands of people in different states and different voting precincts different counties. And they all signed these affidavits.”

Some 60 lawsuits filed challenging the election results have been rejected by the courts. The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Association of State Election Directors have described the election as “the most secure in American history,” adding there is “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” And just before resigning last month, Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department found no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could have changed the outcome of the election.

On Thursday, Pelosi denounced House Republican leaders for placing Greene, who the speaker said “mocked the killing of little children,” on the chamber’s education committee.

“What could they be thinking?” Pelosi said. “Or is thinking too generous a word for what they might be doing? It’s absolutely appalling.”

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) is, too, among those calling on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to strip Greene of her committee assignments, which also includes a spot on the Budget Committee.

On Friday, fellow freshman Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) said that she is moving her office away from Greene’s “for my team’s safety,” alleging in a Twitter post that Greene “berated me in a hallway” and “targeted me & others on social media.”

An aide for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told NBC News that Bush’s office had been moved “by the direct order of the Speaker.”

Greene, in a Twitter post, accused Bush of lying and berating her, sharing a video of herself having a verbal altercation with someone; Greene describes it as “arguing with my Democrat colleagues – supposed colleagues,” but it is unclear from the video with whom Greene is arguing.

Bush responded with a statement posted to Twitter: “On Jan. 13 — after members tested positive for COVID-19 after being locked down with her on Jan. 6 — Marjorie Taylor Greene came up from 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,’” she wrote. 

While some Republicans have condemned Greene’s postings, they were hardly a surprise based on her past rhetoric. In addition to Greene promoting conspiracy theories, Facebook videos surfaced last year showing she’d expressed racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views. Top Republicans denounced her at the time, hoping to block her from capturing the GOP nomination for her reliably red congressional district in northwest Georgia.

The opposition faded, however, when Greene won the primary and was essentially guaranteed a seat in Congress. 

Spectrum News’ Rachel Tillman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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