Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was criticized after she took to X, formerly Twitter, to claim Democrats "can control the weather," suggesting that they unleashed Hurricane Helene on purpose to harm Republicans.
The death toll from Hurricane Helene rose to 227 on Saturday as the effort to recover bodies continued over a week after the devastating storm battered the Southeast, claiming lives across six states.
Helene made landfall on September 26 as a Category 4 hurricane, unleashing widespread destruction as it pushed north from Florida. The storm swept away homes, obliterated roads, and left millions without electricity or cellphone service.
By Friday, the death count had reached 225, with two additional fatalities reported in South Carolina on Saturday. The number of missing people remained unclear, and officials warned that the toll could rise further.
Helene is now the deadliest hurricane to strike the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005. Roughly half of the victims were in North Carolina, with many others in Georgia and South Carolina.
Although an X Community Note pointed out that though "small scale 'cloud seeding' to create localized rain is possible," it's impossible to technologically engineer hurricanes and large storms, Greene nonetheless claimed:
"Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done."
You can see what she wrote below.
The post quickly caught the attention of comedian Patton Oswalt, who rebuked her and joked:
"This is so offensive and untrue. [Direcor Mel Brooks], please send a thunderstorm to wreck her house."
You can see his post below.
While Greene didn't specify in that post that she was referring to Democrats, she also shared a map of the areas impacted by the hurricane—all red states—and wrote:
"This is a map of hurricane affected areas with an overlay of electoral map by political party shows how hurricane devastation could affect the election."
You can see her post below.
The map Greene shared seems to have originated from Matt Wallace, a controversial crypto influencer and conspiracy theorist with over 2 million followers on X, who said of the map:
“I created map showing the path of destruction of Hurricane Helene with an overlay of the 2020 election results... The storm seemed to almost methodically miss the bluest parts of those crucial swing states, while simultaneously ravaging the red parts. What a crazy coincidence!” ...
"If I was a conspiracy theorist, I might assume that this is a big part of the reason why Biden and Kamala are still prioritizing aid to illegals over aid to citizens impacted by the storm. I would also wonder if it was all be design."
You can see his post below.
Greene was quickly called out.
Greene faced backlash last week after she was photographed alongside former President Donald Trump at the Alabama-Georgia college football game in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, instead of helping with the recovery effort in Georgia following the devastation from the hurricane.
Powerful wind gusts swept through Georgia, toppling trees, causing significant flooding, and leaving over half a million people without power. Crews in Georgia at the time worked around the clock to clear debris and restore power, with emergency management teams deployed in 32 counties across the state.
Greene, who referred to Trump as "a man of the people" in her post, never responded to the controversy or why she was in a neighboring state when she should have been helping her constituents.
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@BillAckman/Twitter