Tag: Marjorie

Categories
Politics

Twitter Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene for Posting Coronavirus Misinformation

Twitter Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene for Posting Coronavirus Misinformation

SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter announced Monday that Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene would be suspended from her duty for 12 hours after posting news that violated her policy on disclosing misleading information about the coronavirus.

Ms. Greene, a Republican from Georgia, was a staunch opponent of vaccines and masks as a means of containing the pandemic. In tweets on Sunday and Monday, she argued that Covid-19 is not dangerous for people unless they are obese or over 65 and said vaccines shouldn’t be required.

But coronavirus cases are on the rise, and the highly contagious Delta variant accounts for more than half of new infections in the U.S., federal health officials said this month. In Ms. Greene’s home state of Georgia, new cases have increased 193 percent in the past two weeks.

Twitter said Ms. Greene’s tweets were misinformation and banned her from duty until Tuesday. “We have taken enforcement action against the @mtgreenee account for violating the Twitter rules, in particular the misleading Covid 19 information guidelines,” said a Twitter spokesman. The company also added labels to Ms. Greene’s posts about the vaccines, calling them “misleading” and pointing out information about the safety of the vaccines.

In a statement, Ms. Greene said Silicon Valley companies are working with the White House to attack freedom of expression. “These big tech companies are doing the Biden regime’s commandments to restrict our voices and prevent the distribution of messages that are not state-approved,” she said.

Twitter took action after President Biden urged social media companies to do more to combat the spread of vaccine misinformation on their platforms. On Friday, Mr Biden said sites like Facebook “kill people” by allowing misinformation to flourish freely, adding, “Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and that – and they are killing people . “

His statement ended weeks of frustration in the White House over the spread of online misinformation that resulted in hesitant vaccination, health officials say.

Facebook, which took the brunt of the criticism, argued that Mr Biden’s testimony was unfounded. “The Biden government has chosen to blame a handful of American social media companies,” said Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, in a blog post on Saturday. “The fact is that the adoption of vaccines by Facebook users in the US has increased.”

On Monday, the president softened his criticism, saying that it was not Facebook but certain users who were responsible for the spread of misinformation. The company should do more to combat “the outrageous misinformation” spreading on its platform, rather than taking what he said as a personal insult, added Mr Biden.

Twitter has long banned users from sharing misinformation about the coronavirus that could cause harm. In March, the company introduced a policy outlining penalties for sharing lies about the virus and vaccines.

Updated

July 19, 2021, 9:32 p.m. ET

“We have seen the emergence of persistent conspiracy theories, alarmist rhetoric that is unfounded in research or credible reporting, and a wide range of unfounded rumors that, out of context, can deter the public from making informed decisions about their health and individuals, Families and communities at risk, “the company said in its policy against the disclosure of Covid misinformation.

Individuals who violate this policy are subject to escalating penalties known as strikes and could face a permanent ban if they repeatedly spread misinformation about the virus. A twelve-hour ban, as Ms. Greene learns, is Twitter’s response to users who have either two or three strikes. After four strikes, Twitter bans users for seven days, and after five strikes, Twitter bans the user altogether.

Other Republicans who have been banned from Twitter have complained that the social media company is censoring them.

In January, Twitter banned President Donald J. Trump after the company found his social media posts played a role in inciting violence during the riot in the U.S. Capitol. Mr Trump has argued that Twitter and Facebook, which also blocked his account, censored him, saying the companies need government oversight.

Ms. Greene had previously been banned from Twitter in April, but the company said it was a bug caused by one of its automated spam and abuse detection systems.

“Everyone knows this is a LIE and it wasn’t a mistake,” Ms. Greene tweeted after her suspension was lifted.

Categories
Politics

Home votes to drop Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from committee roles

House votes to drop Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from committee roles

The House voted Thursday to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., From her committee duties as punishment for a laundry list of extreme views and conspiracy theories she advocated prior to taking office.

The vote was held by a margin of 230-199, with 11 Republican members on the side of the Democratic majority. No Democrats voted against the resolution.

The eleven Republicans who voted to remove Greene include: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA), Rep. Chris Jacobs (NY), Rep. Carlos A. Giménez (FL), Rep. John Katko (NY), Rep. Young Kim (CA.), Rep. Adam Kinzinger (IL), Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (NY), Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (FL), Rep. Fred Upton (MI), Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart and Rep. Chris Smith (NJ) .

It was only hours after Greene stepped on the chamber floor to express regret over some of the marginal views she had spread, including the pro-Trump-QAnon conspiracy. She didn’t offer an apology.

Kevin McCarthy, Chairman of the Minority House, R-Calif., Had hoped to avoid the vote, which forced Republicans to give an opinion on the resolution aimed at condemning Greene’s behavior.

While few, if any, GOP members had openly defended Greene’s most controversial remarks – such as alleged support for the execution of top Democrats – some Republicans had argued against the trial, warning that the Democrats’ efforts to get Greene up would set a dangerous precedent. Other Republicans chose to attack Democrats for refusing to reprimand their own members for making fire testimonies in the past.

However, the Democrats claimed that Greene would be placed in a separate category because of her behavior and that she should be removed from the Budgets Committee and the Education and Labor Committee.

“If a person is encouraged to talk about shooting a member in the head, they should lose the right to serve on a committee,” said executive chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass., On Wednesday before his committee approved the resolution to dismiss Greene from the committees.

“If this isn’t the bottom line, I don’t know where the hell the bottom line is,” said McGovern.

Greene had promoted a litany of other radical conspiracies and extreme statements prior to his election. She was reportedly skeptical of the conspiracy theory that a plane failed to hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. She reportedly suggested that some school shootings had occurred and mocked a survivor of the school massacre in Parkland, Florida. Media also reported that Greene suspected in 2018 that forest fires in California might have been caused by laser beams.

McCarthy spoke to Greene in a closed meeting Tuesday night. He then suggested to the Democrats that the GOP Greene would withdraw its duties as the education committee if it could remain on the budget committee, NBC News reported. Democrats turned down this offer.

“To do nothing would be a renunciation of our moral responsibility to our colleagues, the house, our values, the truth and our country,” said the majority leader of the house, Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Before the final vote on Thursday evening.

“Yesterday the Republican Conference decided not to do anything. So today the House has to do something,” said Hoyer.

Greene claims she recently spoke to Trump and has his support. Trump, who lost his race to President Joe Biden but never officially admitted it, retains overwhelming Republican support even after his supporters’ uprising in the U.S. Capitol, in which five people died.

But other prominent Republicans have been less supportive of Greene. Earlier this week, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Blew Greene’s “crazy lies and conspiracy theories” and called them “cancer for the Republican Party and our country.”

McCarthy said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that he “unequivocally” condemned Greene’s many controversial remarks on “school shootings, political violence and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories”.

He criticized the Democrats for sanctioning Greene and accused the majority party of a party political seizure of power.

McCarthy said he told Greene during a meeting Tuesday night that “as members of Congress, we have a responsibility to adhere to a higher standard”.

“Marjorie recognized that in our conversation. I keep her word,” said McCarthy in his statement.

Democrats, meanwhile, seem eager to showcase Greene as the GOP’s figurehead.

McCarthy has decided to make the House Republicans the “party of conspiracy theories and QAnon,” Pelosi said in a statement Wednesday, “and Rep. Greene is in the driver’s seat.”

“I remain deeply concerned about the acceptance of extreme conspiracy theorists by the Republican government,” Pelosi said at a press conference Thursday.

“Particularly troubling is their willingness to reward a QAnon supporter, a 9/11 Truther, a molester of school shootout survivors, for giving them valued committee positions, including – who could imagine them?” Person would join the education committee? “”

Categories
Politics

Home Exiles Marjorie Taylor Greene From Panels, as Republicans Rally Round Her

House Exiles Marjorie Taylor Greene From Panels, as Republicans Rally Around Her

Even so, the episode sparked deep divisions among Republicans over how to move forward as a party. In the days leading up to the vote on Ms. Greene, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the most powerful Republican in Washington, denounced what he called “crazy lies” and claimed that such conspiracy theories were a “cancer” in the world party. Several other senior Republican senators had joined him in denouncing Ms. Greene and saying she could not become the face of the party.

To warn Democrats about the move, House Republicans tabled their own proposal to remove Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar from the foreign affairs committee. She cited comments, including that Israel “hypnotized” the world for their “evil deeds.” “Ms. Omar publicly apologized for these comments, which were charged with anti-Semitism.

“If this is the new standard, I look forward to continuing the standard,” McCarthy said, adding that Republicans have a “long list” of Democrats to remove from their committees.

On Wednesday, after Democrats announced they would reprimand Ms. Greene, Mr McCarthy made a long, tortured statement condemning her comments, saying they had no place among Republicans in the House but argued that they did didn’t deserve to be punished for you. Moving on Wednesday night after the controversial, hour-long Republican meeting, he told reporters that Ms. Greene had privately apologized for her earlier remarks and suggested that it was time to move on.

“She said she knew nothing about lasers or all the different things that were raised about her,” McCarthy said, apparently referring to a Facebook post Ms. Greene wrote in 2018 that indicated devastating wildfires were happening in California a space lasers controlled by a prominent Jewish banking family with ties to powerful democrats.

“Now if we are to judge what other members have said before they are members of Congress, I think it will be difficult for Democrats to get someone on the committee,” he added.

According to Eleanor Neff Powell, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, dismissal from committees is usually reserved for lawmakers on trial, criminal investigation, or otherwise in particularly outrageous ways with their party.

Categories
Politics

Home to vote Thursday to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of committee roles, Hoyer says

House to vote Thursday to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of committee roles, Hoyer says

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) yells at journalists as she goes through security outside the Chamber of the House on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on January 12, 2021.

Andrew Cabellero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images

The House will vote on Thursday on a resolution to deprive MP Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Of her committee duties, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said.

The move comes amid resounding criticism of Greene for a series of extreme remarks she made prior to winning her Congress seat and increasing pressure on Republican leaders to reprimand or condemn these comments.

The resolution ousting Greene from the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Education and Labor was passed in the House Rules Committee on Wednesday afternoon.

Hoyer, D-Md., Said in a statement on Wednesday that the resolution will be voted on Thursday on the floor of the house.

“It is clear that there is no alternative to holding a vote on the decision to remove Rep. Greene from her committee duties,” Hoyer said, noting that he was speaking with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., About Greene had spoken.

McCarthy had suggested to Hoyer that Republicans remove Greene from the education committee if she could stick to her budget committee mandate, a source knowledgeable told NBC News. Hoyer turned down this deal, which would have avoided a vote on the floor of the house.

Greene’s assignment to the Education Committee has proven more controversial amid reports that she mocked a survivor of the school shooting, suggesting that other shootings were jokes.

McCarthy met Greene in his Capitol office Tuesday night. After this discussion, he made no immediate comment.

But in a statement later Wednesday, McCarthy said he “unequivocally” condemns Greene’s many controversial remarks about “school shootings, political violence and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories”.

The Republican leader said he made it clear to Greene during their meeting that “it is our responsibility, as members of Congress, to keep ourselves to a higher standard” and that “her previous comments now have a much greater significance”.

“Marjorie recognized that in our conversation. I keep her word,” said McCarthy in his statement.

But Greene did not publicly apologize for her earlier remarks, only declaring on Wednesday that “we owe them no apology” and “we will never step down,” citing criticism from Democrats and the media.

McCarthy’s testimony stated that his offer to Hoyer was intended as a “way to bring the temperature down and remove those concerns” regarding Greene. But “Democrats are choosing to raise the temperature by taking the unprecedented move to fuel their partisan takeover of the other party’s committee duties,” McCarthy said.

Greene, who won her House seat after running unopposed in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, has long received extensive scrutiny and conviction for promoting an extensive list of conspiracy theories.

Greene has a history of support for the baseless QAnon conspiracy that alleges that former President Donald Trump was embroiled in a secret battle against a cabal of “deep state” political and media criminals. She also recently came under fire after a CNN report revealed she liked multiple comments on Facebook calling for the execution of prominent Democrats, including House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Media also reported that Greene suspected in 2018 that forest fires in California might have been caused by laser beams.

At a House Rules Committee hearing on Wednesday, Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass., Tore up the “really sick stuff” Greene said.

“If a person is encouraged to talk about shooting a member in the head, they should lose the right to serve on a committee,” McGovern said. “If that’s not the bottom line, I don’t know where the hell the bottom line is.”

McCarthy “is unwilling or unable to do the right thing,” added McGovern.

McGovern also expressed hope that the regulatory body could come to a bipartisan agreement on the resolution.

“It’s not about turning down someone with a different political belief, it’s about accountability,” said McGovern. “This is not a debate about a difference in politics or even ideology. It is about what she said.”

Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, the top Republican member of the committee, said at the hearing, “I find Congressman Greene’s comments deeply offensive.”

However, he considered the committee’s hearing “premature” and said the ethics committee should review the matter and make recommendations.

“I urge this committee to consider an alternative course of action before it’s too late.”

“I am very concerned about the precedent of another party that chooses to” ditch the duties of a membership committee, “said Cole.

Earlier this week, Senate Minority Chairman Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Condemned Greene’s “crazy lies and conspiracy theories” calling them “cancer for the Republican Party and our country.”

But many Republicans have remained silent about Greene or withheld judgment about her possible expulsion from the congressional committees.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., tweeted earlier Wednesday that Greene’s “alleged comments on various topics” would be “worrying” if they accurately reflected her current views. But “the most important thing for me is to understand what Rep. Greene believes now and in the past,” tweeted Graham, urging her to correct the record “if it needs to be corrected.”

Meanwhile, Greene has attacked the media during the latest wave of harmful stories about her.

“If @SpeakerPelosi were the leader of the minority, she would use every identity ploy in the book to defend her member,” Greene claimed on Twitter on Wednesday. “White, woman, woman, mother, Christian, conservative, business owner […] Those are the reasons why they don’t want me at Ed & Labor. “

She previously warned that if Democrats attempt to excise them from House committees, “I can assure you that the precedent they are setting will be used extensively against members on their side once we regain a majority after the 2022 elections.” “

Some Republicans have already taken steps in this direction. Republican lawmakers tabled an amendment this week to oust Minnesota Democratic MP Ilhan Omar from their committees, accusing them of making anti-Semitic comments.

Omar, one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress, said in a statement that these efforts are “a desperate smear based on racism, misogyny and Islamophobia”.

“Republicans will do everything possible to distract from the fact that they have not only admitted members of their own caucus but also increased those encouraging violence,” Omar said.

Categories
Business

Marjorie Taylor Greene presents ‘a major problem for the GOP,’ Republican strategist says

Lawmakers, activists call for removal from Congress

Republican strategist Evan Siegfried told CNBC that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. and “their hideous views pose a serious problem for the GOP” as the House of Representatives prepares to vote on Thursday on a resolution to remove Greene’s committee duties.

“You don’t just force that [Republican] To say party whether they agree with them or not, but they are a gift to Biden and the Democrats because they don’t allow Republicans to effectively communicate their message against President Biden’s agenda, “said Siegfried, the author of “GOP GPS: How to Find the Millennials and Urban Voters the Republican Party needs to survive. “

The move to remove Greene from the committee’s duties comes amid widespread criticism of a number of extreme remarks she made prior to winning her congressional seat, including pointing out that school shootings like the one at Sandy Hook took place in 2012 and a parkland survivor were mocked.

Minority chairman Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Released a statement Wednesday condemning Greene’s earlier comments but said the decision to remove them from committees was a distraction from Congress.

“The Democrats are resolving to raise the temperature by taking the unprecedented step to advance their partisan takeover of the other party’s committee assignments,” McCarthy said.

Siegfried told The News with Shepard Smith that McCarthy and the Republicans missed an opportunity because they did nothing.

“Leader McCarthy and the House GOP have given up their responsibilities by saying that they will now let the whole House decide their fate,” said Siegfried. “It shouldn’t be difficult to take action against someone with morally disgusting views.”

On Wednesday, the Democrats in the House Rules Committee gave the go-ahead for the vote, saying they had to act because Republicans didn’t take action.

House majority leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Tweeted after speaking with minority leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “”

Greene took advantage of the Democrats’ actions and began fundraising Tuesday based on allegations that she was wrongly aligned with her beliefs. She tweeted that she has since raised $ 160,000 for her efforts.

Democratic strategist Eric Koch told The News with Shepard Smith that Democrats shouldn’t worry that their opposition may benefit Greene’s grassroots.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene is a dangerous Q-anon conspiracy theorist and must be held accountable for her extremist, anti-Semitic views and the trauma she has brought on survivors of violence,” said Koch. “Democrats shouldn’t worry what their base might think of this.”

Speaking at the rules committee hearing, senior Oklahoma Republican Tom Cole said he was concerned that allowing Democrats to unilaterally take action against a legislature in another party would set a dangerous precedent.

Committee chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass. Said it was okay to set a precedent for a member to advocate violence against his colleagues. “If that’s not why I don’t know what the hell is,” said McGovern.

Koch said, “If the Republicans would rather side with someone who thinks the parkland shooting is a joke or if Jewish space lasers set off forest fires, that’s their choice.”

The vote will force Republicans to put on record whether Greene should be reprimanded for her earlier comments.

Siegfried predicted that GOP officials “will be praised by the media and loathed by the grassroots, and as a result many will see them as part of the” establishment “and somehow personally against them.”

Siegfried added that Republican elected officials looked away from many of Trump’s “absurdities” believing the party would return to its pre-Trump era once he was out of office.

“They didn’t expect the grassroots not to want to go back there, and they also voted for pro-Trump officials who will continue to advocate what can only be described as insane and morally disgusting views.”

A parallel drama also played out in the house with Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wy. Supporters of former President Donald Trump want to remove Cheney from her No. 3 leadership position for supporting Trump’s impeachment for inciting insurrection

Siegfried said the debate among Republicans in the House about keeping Cheney signals to him that the grassroots Trump had created has not changed.

“They will be present for years to come, promoting individuals and ideas that are more like Greene than Rep. Cheney,” Siegfried said.

A source told NBC News that Cheney refused to apologize for the charges against Trump during an allegedly noisy GOP meeting in camera.

Koch said the move against Cheney showed that “the Republican Party is Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s party”.

Categories
Politics

Cori Bush shifting her workplace after Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘berated’ her

Cori Bush moving her office after Marjorie Taylor Greene 'berated' her

Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) (L), Rep Cori Bush (D-MO).

Reuters (L) | Getty Images (R)

GOP MP Marjorie Taylor Greene and her staff allegedly “berated” Missouri House Democrat Cori Bush, who said on Friday that she was moving her office from Greene “for the security of my team.”

Bush also said in a tweet that the Georgia Republican “targeted me and others on social media”.

An adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Confirmed to NBC News that Bush’s office had been reassigned. “This change in room allocation was made on the speaker’s direct orders,” the aide told NBC.

Regarding the deadly January 6 uprising in the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, she noted that she had “called for the expulsion of members who instigated the uprising from day one.”

Following that invasion, Bush tabled a resolution instructing the House Ethics Committee to investigate whether lawmakers attempting to overthrow President Joe Biden’s election victory should be “violated” and “sanctioned, including the oath of office Removal from representative’s house. “

Bush’s statement implied that Greene should be included in this proposed investigation. Both Greene and Bush are newly elected officials who were sworn into Congress earlier this month.

Later on Friday, Greene shot back from her personal Twitter account that Bush was “lying to you. She berated me.”

Greene claimed to “have the receipts”. She included a video on the Twitter post of walking down a hallway speaking into a handheld camera. Under her chin was a black face mask with the word “REDACTED” – the same guy she’d worn when she spoke on the floor of the house against Trump’s second impeachment.

The 77-second video shows Greene criticizing Democrats who supported last summer’s wave of protests against police brutality and racial injustice, some of which broke out violently.

An off-screen voice then shouts: “Follow the rules and put on a mask!”

Another voice says, “Stop inciting violence with Black Lives Matter.” Bush, the first black Congresswoman from Missouri and an activist for Black Lives Matter, said in a statement that one of Greene’s staff made the remark.

Greene, looking away from the camera, says, “You know what, yeah, don’t yell at people. You know what, you shouldn’t bring Covid-positive members here! Spread Covid everywhere! Stop being a hypocrite!”

In a statement sent by her office, Bush said the clash took place on Jan. 13 in the underground tunnel that connects the Cannon House office building and the Capitol.

Bush said Greene “came up behind me and scolded loudly into her phone without wearing a mask.”

“This came a day after several of my colleagues in the House of Representatives announced they had tested positive for COVID-19 after being in a room with Taylor Greene during the White Supremacist attack on the Capitol,” the said Legislator.

Bush said that “out of concern for the health of my staff, other members of Congress, and their congressional staff, I repeatedly asked them to put on a mask,” at which Greene and her staff “cursed me.”

“In the context of Taylor Greene’s repeated advocacy for the execution of Democratic leaders prior to taking office, Taylor Greene’s renewed, repeated antagonism of the Movement for the Life of Blacks directed against me personally over the past month is of serious concern.”

“All of this led to my decision to move my office from Taylor Greene for security reasons. My office is currently being moved out of the Longworth House office building,” said Bush.

Bush and Greene have offices on the same floor of the Longworth House Office Building, one of three house member buildings on Capitol Hill.

Greene has expressed his support for radical pro-Trump conspiracy theory, QAnon, whose believers, in some instances, cheered the Capitol break-in that killed five people.

Greene recently came under additional fire after she reportedly approached a survivor of the Parkland, Florida shooting and disliked social media posts calling for violence against Democrats.

On Wednesday, a news crew from NBC subsidiary WRCB was reportedly removed from an event at City Hall and threatened with arrest after attempting to ask Greene a question.

Pelosi has blown Greene and the “absolutely appalling” decision by the House Republicans to appoint Greene to the House Education Committee.

“What could you think? Or is thinking too generously a word for what you might do?” Pelosi said at a press conference Thursday.

A spokesman for the minority leader of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pelosi’s remarks.