QAnon fan who's expressed racist and anti-Semitic views could win House seat Tuesday

Voters in Georgia head to the polls Tuesday to decide whether they want to send a GOP candidate who has made a litany of racist, anti-Semitic, and Islamophobic comments to Congress.

Marjorie Taylor Greene — a businesswoman who believes in the widely debunked and dangerous QAnon conspiracy theory that the FBI has labeled as a domestic terrorism threat — will face off with neurosurgeon John Cowan in a runoff election for Georgia’s 14th District.

It’s a safe GOP seat that Donald Trump carried by 53 points in 2016, meaning whichever Republican emerges from Tuesday’s primary runoff will be the member of Congress from this seat.

Greene has a good shot of emerging from Tuesday’s runoff. She came in first in the June 9 primary, garnering 40% of the vote in a crowded field, with Cowan in a distant second with 21%. Georgia election rules call for a runoff with the top-two vote recipients when a candidate does not earn 50% of the vote.

However, Greene’s history of offensive comments could make her a pariah among her conference before she even arrives.

Greene has said, according to videos obtained by Politico:

• Muslims do “not belong in our government.”
• The 2018 midterms — in which a diverse class of Democratic candidates helped Democrats win control of the lower chamber — was “an Islamic invasion of our government.”
• Islamic nations that follow Sharia law are places where men “marry their sisters [and] their cousins,” and that Muslim men have sex with “little boys, little girls, multiple women.”

None of those things are true.

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, meaning anyone of any religion can serve in government.

Greene’s description of the 2018 midterms as an “Islamic invasion” is a hateful and discriminatory trope, and the use of the racist term “invasion” is frequently used by anti-immigrant extremists to describe any non-white person coming into the United States.

Sharia law does not call for incest or child molestation.

Politico reported that Greene has also made numerous false and racist comments about the Black Lives Matter movement, equating anti-racism protesters who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 with Nazis and members of Ku Klux Klan.

Greene has also said there is no systemic racism in the United States, and that Black people are “lazy” and just make “bad choices,” according to Politico.

“Guess what? Slavery is over,” Greene said in a video obtained by Politico. “Black people have equal rights.”

While Black Americans are supposedly granted equal rights under the law, data shows they face numerous hurdles that white people do not, including higher unemployment, fewer opportunities for higher-paying jobs, and higher poverty rates and less wealth, often due to systemic racism in societal structures and hiring.

Greene has also falsely claimed that “the most mistreated group of people in the United States today are white males.”

The Republican candidate has a history of anti-Semitic comments as well, namely about George Soros, a Holocaust survivor and prominent Democratic donor who has become a boogeyman for Republicans.

She has falsely claimed Soros was a Nazi collaborator, saying in a video obtained by Politico that, “George Soros is the piece of crap that turned in — he’s a Jew — he turned in his own people over to the Nazis.” (None of this is true.)

And Greene has posted videos about the debunked QAnon conspiracy theory, which falsely claims there is “cabal” of largely Democratic politicians and celebrities that controls the government and runs a child sex-trafficking ring, and is working to bring down Trump.

Greene has been denounced by high-ranking GOP officials, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise.

A spokesperson for McCarthy called Greene’s comments “appalling,” while Scalise called Greene’s words “disgusting,” according to the New York Times.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.