On Wednesday, California Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell tweeted about an interaction he had at the United States Capitol with a father and son during a Capitol tour.
Swalwell tweeted:
"Today I gave a tour in the Capitol and was stopped by a father with his young boy. The father yelled at me 'Hey Swalwell' and then told his son, 'that’s Swalwell. He’s trouble. He doesn’t back Trump'."
"I kept walking and felt sad for the boy. He’s being raised in a cult family."
In response, Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted an oft repeated right-wing lie about Swalwell.
The GOP Congresswoman posted:
"No way that happened."
"Because we all know good Trump supporting fathers would say, 'that’s the Democrat who had sex with a Chinese spy'."
In 2014 a woman named Fang Fang—aka Christine Fang—reportedly participated in fundraising for Swalwell’s 2014 reelection campaign and recommended an intern for his office.
In 2015, federal investigators alerted Swalwell to their concerns Fang might be a Chinese intelligence operative. He immediately cut all ties with her.
Swalwell was never accused of any wrongdoing. Fang allegedly had sex with two mayors from the Midwest, but Swalwell was never suspected, implicated or accused of having sex with Fang.
Yet right-wing agitators—like Greene—use the lie as an insult against Swalwell whenever his name is in the news.
Swalwell responded to Greene's perpetuation of the lie with audio of a threatening message he received.
The caller mentioned the same lie Greene's tweet amplified.
Swalwell tweeted with the audio file:
"Marjorie loves to play the victim. But she’s an inciter of violence.
"Her constant attacks—even after the FBI said I was never suspected of wrongdoing—lead to threatening calls like this."
"This caller from today threatened to kill my three children."
WARNING: NSFW language
In the audio file, a man’s voice said:
“Hey, you little c*cksucker. You still banging the Chinese spy Fang Fang and stinkin' up the Capitol with your farts?"
"We’re coming to your house this weekend."
"Gonna get you and them little mutant b*stards, them little mutant offspring of yours."
"We’re gonna get ya.”
People were horrified at the level of hate directed at Swalwell because of people like Greene parroting lies.
Swalwell is not the first to accuse Greene of inciting violence through her use of inflammatory rhetoric, lies and conspiracy theories.
Representative Cori Bush was forced to move her congressional office away from Greene's citing she and her staff felt unsafe.
