Things got heated between Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Marcus Flowers—the Democratic candidate vying for her House seat—after he asked her if Democratic President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
Speaking during the Atlanta Press Club’s 2022 Loudermilk-Young Debate, Flowers revealed he'd decided to run for office because of Greene's numerous controversies, adding he holds her at least partially responsible for the January 6 insurrection.
Greene has continued to promote former Republican President Donald Trump's falsehoods about the integrity of the election and backed those who attacked the United States Capitol on the false premise the election was stolen.
The violence that erupted that day resulted in over 100 injuries to law enforcement and millions of dollars in damages, a reality Greene has continued to outright deny.
You can watch what happened in the video below.
After Flowers explained his reasons for entering the race, Greene made the absurd claim that she was actually a "victim" of the insurrection she has regularly championed:
“You cannot accuse me of insurrection. I was a victim of the January 6 riots as any other member of Congress."
“That was the third day I had on the job, I had nothing to do with what happened there that day, and I will not have you accuse me of that."
"That is wrong of you to do, you are lying about me and you will not defame my character in that manner.”
Flowers then asked her to affirm whether Joe Biden is the President of the United States, to which she responded by raising her voice:
“Joe Biden is the President of the United States, Marcus."
Flowers then quickly took her to task for her history of denying that simple fact.
"Absolutely. But you pushed a big lie that said he did not win the election."
"And you drove those people over the Capitol on Jan. 6 with your lie."
But an undeterred Greene snapped at him, saying that there is indeed proof that election fraud took place and that her own husband "has proof of it."
It is odd that Greene would bring up her husband—though not uncharacteristic of her to lie about him—during the debate given that she is currently in the middle of divorce proceedings.
Greene was accused of hypocrisy after she asked for the media to "respect our privacy" after her husband Perry filed for divorce on Wednesday, September 28. Perry Greene said the marriage is “irretrievably broken,” according to court documents.
In his divorce petition, Perry Greene requests an equitable division of the pair’s assets and debt. He notes that he and his wife have already separated. Greene has already signed a document included in the Floyd County court docket confirming receipt of her husband’s divorce filings.
Greene was swiftly criticized for her remarks.
Greene has a long history of downplaying the severity of the January 6 insurrection and backing those who participated in the attack.
In June, Greene claimed ahead of a vote on a gun control measure that the committee and the federal government at large had "fragrantly" violated the rights of January 6 defendants who have been detained pre-trial, which made it sound as if these violations had a pleasant or sweet smell, a gaffe that did not go unnoticed.
Greene has made headlines in the past for visiting insurrectionists in jail, once telling Steve Bannon, former President Trump's ex-chief strategist, that the prisoners draw pictures of the American flag and sing the national anthem every evening while crying.
Greene has described the conditions in the jail as "deplorable" and claimed that unhoused people and Guantanamo Bay detainees enjoy better living conditions.
In November 2021, she said she had "never seen human suffering like I witnessed last night" after she was granted access to enter the D.C. Department of Corrections after months of trying.
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