Shocker: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is at it again. This time, the Georgia Republican is on Twitter calling the Jan. 6 insurrection a “three hour riot” caused by “Antifa,” and tossing in some bewildering word salad about the U.S.- Mexico border. It’s almost like she keeps getting away with disinformation, so she makes the claims more and more far-fetched.
Her tweeted tirade today was in response to a statement from United States Representative Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), member of the House Homeland Security Committee, on behalf of the Minority Democrats pulling out of planned visit to the U.S.-Mexico border town of McAllen, TX. Thompson’s statement said that he and fellow Democrats won’t participate in a Republican field hearing at the border, because its purpose is not to solve problems, but to “attack the Administration and try to score political points with their extreme rhetoric — despite having voted against the resources border personnel need.”
It would seem like this would be the point for Greene to push back on. But Greene is not here to talk facts, she’s here to divide. The best way she knows how to do that is to A. blame the other side and B. bring up something unrelated. Take a look at the Tweet below, but since the text is truncated due to length, here‘s what it says:
“Hilarious!!
Bennie Thompson, former chair of the politically weaponized January 6th committee, says Democrats aren’t going to McAllen, TX today for our Homeland Security Committee hearing tomorrow on the border because Republicans won’t be bipartisan.
Facts don’t lie about our daily border invasion and 300+ Americans being murdered daily from Cartel’s Chinese fentanyl Bennie! Hard to be political about those statistics!
But the real liar is Bennie Thompson and how he abused his power as chair of the J6 committee to persecute Pres Trump, his admin, and supporters and create the “insurrection” lie about a 3 hour riot at the Capitol that was likely incited by some Fed operatives, Antifa, and a few bad actors.
Democrats hide when the truth is in their face and their FAILING agenda is on full display.
If they actually showed up at the border they would be forced to either actually be bipartisan and work with Republicans OR just go ahead and admit they are the party of the open borders globalists agenda.
But by not showing up, they are just showing everyone they are cowards.”
So let’s get to today’s debunking, shall we? The amount of untruthfulness is staggering, but let’s start with how the insurrection was “a lie.” A bipartisan panel found otherwise, as has been widely reported, and its violence and origins are substantiated in detail. Greene suggests it was “likely incited by some Fed operatives, Antifa, and a few bad actors.” Let’s talk about Antifa — about which, by the way, PBS News Hour reports, “no hierarchical structure to antifa or universal set of tactics that makes its presence immediately recognizable.” Nevertheless, if Antifa is responsible for the riots, how would that work, exactly? Antifa dressed up like MAGA supporters? To attack the Capitol in support of a man they don’t support? To help him stay in power? Make that make sense. The only “operatives” present were Oath Keepers and Proud Boys. There was no centralized effort, by Feds or otherwise. “A few bad actors?” There were more than 2,000 involved in the “3-hour-riot,” with people beating up cops to gain access to the capitol. People died. Were those bad actors? Notice that even she says “likely incited,” likely because she knows it’s bunk.
Now let’s take a look at this sentence: “Facts don’t lie about our daily border invasion and 300+ Americans being murdered daily from Cartel’s Chinese fentanyl Bennie!”
…”Facts don’t lie?” There are zero facts in that statement. If someone on the street told you this, you’d put them in a mental institution. Three hundred people murdered daily? 300 a day?! Don’t you think we’d hear about that? That would be 2,100 Americans a week. Murdered by whom, precisely? Greene doesn’t specify, but cobbles together raw material of “invasion” and “Cartel” and “Chinese fentanyl,” which her alt-right adherents can cook up into a powerful opiate of anti-immigrant paranoia. Heightening the absurdity, Greene fails to use a comma of direct address to separate Rep. Bennie Thompson’s name from the rest of her sentence; the resulting “Cartel’s Chinese fentanyl Bennie” sounds less like an allusion to international narcotics distribution, and more like the name of a particularly sinister AKC-registered Chiweenie at the Westminster Dog Show.
Probably, “300+ Americans being murdered daily” refers, however ineptly, to the massive numbers of deaths by fentanyl overdose in the United States — which, while horrific, still aren’t murders. Or maybe she’s alluding to Americans killed by cartel violence in Mexico. In all of 2021, per this account by the New York Times, over 200 Americans died in Mexico. Most of those deaths resulted from accidents, although suicides and drug-related incidents also merit attention. Of those 200, 75 were ruled homicides. That number is high. But 75 a year is not 300 a day. Frankly, to characterize the nebulous “300+ Americans murdered daily” as “facts” meant, somehow, to counter Trump or his rioters’ accountability for the Jan. 6 insurrection should make us worry for the future of our country, if people like Greene stay in charge.