Jewish groups denounce QAnon congresswoman's antisemitic lies

The leaders of an influential group of Jewish nonprofits called on Friday for Congress to take action against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), after an old Facebook post Greene posted surfaced in which she pushed a false and offensive conspiracy theory that a wealthy Jewish family was responsible for a deadly wildfire in California in 2018.

The heads of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, whose members include leaders of both liberal and conservative Jewish organizations, said in a statement, “There must be a swift and commensurate response from Congressional leadership making clear that this conduct cannot and will not be allowed to debase our politics.”

“We are outraged by the statements, past and present, of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene,” the three leaders of the Jewish nonprofit said. “She routinely traffics in unfounded conspiracy theories that are often antisemitic in nature. As an avid supporter of QAnon, Representative Greene espouses antisemitic canards, such as placing blame on ‘the Rothschilds’ for recent wildfires in California and declaring that ‘Zionist supremacists’ are behind supposed nefarious plots.”

The Republican Jewish Coalition — a lobbying group whose mission statement reads, “We seek to foster and enhance ties between the American Jewish community and Republican decision makers. We work to sensitize Republican leadership in government and the Party to the concerns and issues of the Jewish community” —  also denounced Greene, saying it has always found Greene “deeply offensive.”

“We opposed her as a candidate and we continue to oppose her now,” the RJC said in a statement. “She is far outside the mainstream of the Republican Party and the RJC is working closely with the House Republican leadership regarding next steps in the matter.”

The statements from the organizations came after Media Matters for America discovered a 2018 Facebook post in which Greene blamed the deadly Camp wildfire in California that year on laser beams from space somehow connected with the “Rothschild Inc, international investment banking firm.”

The Rothschild family has appeared frequently in antisemitic conspiracy theories for 175 years.

Greene has since deleted the Facebook post as she continues to scrub her social media accounts of offensive posts as they are unearthed by the media.

In other examples, CNN reported that Greene had called repeatedly in 2018 and 2019 for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders to be executed. Media Matters for America found old comments from Greene in which she said school shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, were “false flags” events meant to build support for gun control.

Greene can also be seen harassing and threatening David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, in a video that went viral this week.

Democratic lawmakers are seeking to have Greene expelled from Congress.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who called for her expulsion weeks ago after Greene helped incite the deadly insurrection by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, reiterated her call on Friday. Bush said Greene threatened her in a hallway in the Capitol, and she was moving her office away from Greene’s for her own and her staff’s safety.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he was going to have a “conversation” with Greene, but did not comment on whether he would support any consequences for her comments and actions.

Axios reported that Republicans had been repeatedly warned that Greene’s unhinged views would cause problems for their party. Her racist, Islamophobic, and antisemitic views were already well known before she was elected.

But McCarthy ignored those warnings, embracing Greene and telling the country in November after she was elected to give her an “opportunity” to serve before drawing conclusions about her.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.