Marjorie Taylor Greene asked journalists to judge her by her own words — and this one accepted the challenge

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is being slammed by her critics for speaking at the America First Political Action Conference — an event organized by White nationalist and anti-Semite Nick Fuentes — on Friday, February 25. Greene, in response to the criticism, has challenged journalists to judge her by her own words. And Washington Post opinion writer Catherine Rampell, in her February 28 column, accepts the challenge and describes some of the many appalling things that Greene has said since being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020.

“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) doesn’t want to be held accountable for the White supremacists she pals around with,” Rampell explains. “Judge her instead by her own words, she pleads. Sure thing, Congresswoman. Challenge accepted.”

Greene wasn’t the only far-right MAGA Republican who spoke at the America First Political Action Conference, described by Rampell as a White nationalist equivalent of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Others included Arizona State Sen. Wendy Rogers, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin. All of them were welcomed by Fuentes.

“Minutes before Greene addressed the crowd,” Rampell notes, “Fuentes crowed that ‘our secret sauce here, it’s these young White men.’ He declared that the January 6 insurrection was ‘awesome.’ He solicited a ‘round of applause for Russia,’ to which the crowd chanted ‘Putin! Putin!’ And he seemed to suggest that attempts to compare Russian President Vladimir Putin to Hitler are flattering.”

After the event, a defensive Greene tweeted, “I am not going to play the guilt by association game in which you demand every conservative should justify anything ever said by anyone they’ve ever shared a room with…. I’m only responsible for what I say.”

I am not going to play the guilt by association game in which you demand every conservative should justify anything ever said by anyone they\u2019ve ever shared a room with.\n\nI\u2019m not going to be drawn into that. I\u2019m only responsible for what I say. \n\nSo ask me about my speech.\n\n(1/3)pic.twitter.com/MvOI5Nsk1k — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene) 1645899081

Rampell, in response, writes, “Well, we at least agree on that last part. Greene should be held responsible for what she says, at a neo-Nazi confab or elsewhere. For instance, Greene should be held accountable for continuing to compare every Democratic policy she opposes — whether mask mandates, vaccination requirements or January 6 responses — to the Holocaust…. She has shared other anti-Semitic garbage over the years.”

The Post columnist continues, “These include claims about Jewish space lasers supposedly sparking California wildfires. And how ‘Zionist supremacists’ are conspiring to replace the West’s White Christian population with non-White Muslim immigrants, an endorsement of the ‘Great Replacement’ theory that was also voiced by other speakers in Orlando.”

Other offensive things Greene has said, Rampell observes, range from “her remarks that Muslims do not belong in government” to “her claim that 9/11 was an inside job, with no plane ever crashing into the Pentagon” to saying “that leading Democratic officials should be executed.”

Many Republicans are afraid to saying anything against Greene, as former President Donald Trump likes her and they dare not offend Dear Leader. But Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah isn’t afraid to call Greene out. When Romney was asked about Greene and Gosar appearing at a White nationalist event, he responded, “I’m reminded of that old line from the ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ movie, where one character says: ‘Morons. I have got morons on my team.’”

Rampell writes, “She has been denounced by some of the few Republicans who still have principles…. Most Republicans, it seems, would prefer to keep the morons on their team.”