Another day, another hot take from your reliably not-truthful Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Some of her recent hits include comparing Black Lives Matter protesters to Jan. 6 insurrectionists, calling for a “national divorce,” and seemingly having only three toes. Her latest hilarious (and frightening) take involves the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Greene is doing what she loves: taking completely separate things and comparing them without any thought of nuance or logic. Of course, she’s appealing to her base and the countless people who don’t want to take the time to actually think things through. So what easily-dismantled falsehood did she peddle this time?
The narrative is pretty simple here. By “they,” above, Rep. Greene likely means to suggest that President Biden (it’s always Biden, remember that “blame the other guy” is a key to divisional politics) is bailing out the Silicon Valley Bank, even though this presumably threatens the economy as a whole; he’s giving money to Ukraine, even though they’re fighting for independence like America did in 1776 (and we needed help, too — France bailed the U.S. out during the Revolutionary War), but she claims he’s not giving any money to East Palestine.
First things first; as an actual legislator elected to national office, Greene is also “they.” This “they” she’s railing against is the institution of government, which she is a part of. Mind numbing, that one. If she was so concerned about getting money to Palestine, she could do something about it, she’s “they!”
Secondly, not only did the Biden administration send aid within hours of the trail derailment disaster, additional aid was requested and granted on Feb 17, per a WH fact sheet:
“As President Biden told Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro soon after the derailment, the Federal Government stands ready to provide any additional federal assistance the states may need.”
There’s a reason these things are laid out in such an elementary way. There’s a reason MTG ignores facts. It’s called disinformation. It really just takes the tiniest bit of research — FactCheck.org is one helpful resource — to dismantle this woman’s lying. This is not an unintelligent woman. This is a woman who wants power and doesn’t care who she lies to or who she steps over to get it. Did Marjorie Taylor Greene make a fair point? She did not.