Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene declared Democrats "already started" killing Republicans. She was almost immediately criticized for spreading yet another baseless conspiracy theory.
Greene made the claim during Donald Trump's MAGA rally in Warren, Michigan on Saturday, October 1. She referenced two local news stories to support her lie, though neither story backs the claim Republicans are being hunted down.
You can hear what Greene said in the video below.
\u201cMarjorie Taylor Greene: "I am not going to mince words with you all. Democrats want Republicans dead and they have already started the killings."\n\nThis rhetoric is dangerous and unacceptable.\u201d— The Republican Accountability Project (@The Republican Accountability Project) 1664657947
Greene said:
"We're all targets now, though for daring to push back against the regime and it doesn't stop at a weaponized legal system."
"I'm not going to mince words with you all. Democrats want Republicans dead. They've already started the killings."
"An 18-year-old was run down by a Democrat driver who confessed to killing the teenager simply because he was a Republican."
"Even right here in Michigan just last week an 83-year-old woman was shot in the back for advocating for the unborn."
The first story Greene appeared to be referencing concerns an incident in North Dakota in which a man fatally struck a teenager with his SUV.
The suspect—who fled the scene of the crash— told police he believed the 18-year-old victim was "part of a Republican extremist group" and had been "threatening him," according to The Daily Mail.
The man's claim was quickly disputed by local authorities who told Fox News investigations "uncovered no evidence to support the claim" the killing was politically motivated.
The second story Greene referenced concerns a Michigan man of unknown political affiliation who reportedly shot an elderly pro-life volunteer who he said refused to leave his property. The man said he shot the elderly woman by "accident" after she got into a "screaming match" with his wife and was accused of trespassing.
Greene went on to criticize Democratic President Joe Biden and assured her audience Republicans "will take back our country" from imagined enemies.
"Joe Biden has declared every freedom-loving American an enemy of the state."
"We will take back our country from the communists who have stolen it and want us to disappear.
"We will expose the unelected bureaucrats, the real enemies within, who have abused their power and have declared political warfare on the greatest president this country has ever had."
Greene's comments sparked anger online from critics who said she was calling for violence.
Again.
\u201c"Accusation in a mirror"\n\n@RepMTG is telling us that Republicans want violence. They will lie and claim it is "in self-defense".\u201d— \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8Vote Blue in 2022 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8Vote Blue in 2022 \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1664680854
\u201cThis is going to lead people to violence.\u201d— Thomas Lecaque (@Thomas Lecaque) 1664682877
\u201cAmazing that this will not make front page mews tomorrow. \n\nWe\u2019ll talk about Supreme Court justices having protests in front of their homes after they stripped us of human rights but we won\u2019t talk about a sitting congresswoman spreading a conspiracy theory that incite violence.\u201d— Elad Nehorai (@Elad Nehorai) 1664683498
\u201cAnother day, another opportunity for @RepMTG to continue to incite rage & violence. This is disgusting. You\u2019re a disgrace to our country and to women everywhere\u201d— ahimsa (@ahimsa) 1664719091
\u201cIt\u2019s as if she were handing them weapons and saying - go do what ever you have to do. \nThis women is dangerous.\u201d— \ud83d\udcff\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08Henry Amador-Batten (@\ud83d\udcff\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08Henry Amador-Batten) 1664755930
\u201cEvery \u201cWestern\u201d society has always harbored far-right extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene who dream of committing acts of fascistic violence. But the fact that the Republican Party embraces and elevates people like her constitutes an acute danger to democracy. 1/\u201d— Thomas Zimmer (@Thomas Zimmer) 1664803898
\u201cAmerica, you have to confront reality and organize and focus on addressing it in a way that unites the country around a commitment to truth and justice and the common purpose of no longer tolerating Russian disinformation and unaccountable leaders\u2014and bounce them from public life\u201d— Luke Zaleski (@Luke Zaleski) 1664765985
\u201cInciting violence against Democrats and basically anyone who is against MAGA. But we will tolerate it because it's a Republican saying it.\u201d— Wajahat Ali (@Wajahat Ali) 1664677423
\u201cThis is not normal and it is not okay.\u201d— The Annasthesiologist \ud83e\udd1f (@The Annasthesiologist \ud83e\udd1f) 1664723523
Greene has previously endorsed violence against her political opponents.
She was stripped of her committee assignments after she made antisemitic remarks and promoted violence against Democrats.
Greene is one of the more vocal adherents to the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose believers allege Democrats are part of a Satan-worshipping, baby-eating global pedophile ring that conspired against former Republican President Donald Trump during his time in office.
Greene has claimed there are links between former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and pedophilia and human sacrifice, once insisting "Pizzagate"—a debunked conspiracy theory targeting Democrats that claimed Clinton ran a pedophilia ring out of the basement of a pizza restaurant that didn't have a basement—was real.
Greene was accused of calling for violence last week after she equated Democrats to hogs in a video announcing a competition where the winner can join her hunting for feral hogs in Texas. Greene likened Democrats to the wild animals that destroy crop yields nationwide, suggesting "Democrats’ America-last policies" are responsible for the problems in the United States.
