Conspiracy-backing GOP candidate says she was invited to White House for RNC
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Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican nominee for Georgia's 14th Congressional District, said in a tweet on Tuesday that President Trump has invited her to the White House to attend his acceptance speech on Thursday evening.
Why it matters: Greene has repeatedly made offensive remarks about Black people, Jews and Muslims in Facebook videos, and she has publicly supported the QAnon movement and other far-right conspiracy theories.
Context: QAnon purports, without proof, that posts by an anonymous internet user, who they believe works for the federal government, are alluding to a secret war that a cabal of pedophiles and cannibals is waging against President Trump.
- The FBI flagged internet conspiracy theories like QAnon as potential domestic terrorist threats in 2019.
- Greene told Fox News last week that her QAnon-supporting videos no longer represent her and that "once I started finding misinformation, I decided that I would choose another path."
What she's saying: "I’m honored and thrilled to be invited to attend President Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday evening at the White House," Greene tweeted. "I’m also equally excited to vote for him again November 3rd, and I’m working hard all over Georgia to help him win."
- The White House and the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comments.
House Republican leaders, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, criticized Greene after Facebook videos surfaced of her claiming that Black people "are held slaves to the Democratic Party." McCarthy has since said she will be welcomed into the GOP conference if she wins in November.
- Greene has also said she believes Muslims should not serve in government, called George Soros a Nazi and claimed that the 2017 Las Vegas shooting was a targeted operation to help pass "anti-gun legislation." Soros is a Holocaust survivor.
- In 2017 blog posts, Greene speculated that the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was an "inside job," and she promoted "Pizzagate," a baseless conspiracy alleging that some Democratic Party leaders are running a human-trafficking and pedophilia ring, according to CNN.
The big picture: Trump congratulated Greene in early August for winning the Republican nomination for Georgia's 14th district, calling her a "future Republican star." She is likely to win a seat in the House in November's general election.
- President Trump claimed at a press conference last week that he does not know a lot about QAnon, but that he understands its supporters "like me very much" and that they "love America."
- On Tuesday, a pair of bipartisan lawmakers introduced a House resolution to condemn QAnon.
Go deeper: QAnon's 2020 resurgence
