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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., is trying to stir up fury toward Jewish-led organizations that gathered inside a House office building Wednesday to demand that the United States call for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
And she’s using a word that seems to hit close to home for her.
Greene has voiced support for the Donald Trump supporters who rioted in the U.S. Capitol demanding that the 2020 election be overturned. She’s tried over the years to garner sympathy for the Jan. 6 participants who’ve been jailed or sentenced to prison for their role in the siege. Now, she is absurdly describing the Jewish advocacy group members who demonstrated in the Cannon House Office Building as "insurrectionists."
In a letter to the U.S. Capitol Police last week, she demanded that authorities preserve "all video surveillance footage, photographic evidence, police reports, and arrest records" from all House office buildings on the day of the demonstration. She called for the protesters to be "prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Greene has used her social media presence to push racist claims against Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who attended the rally and who is the only Palestinian American member of Congress. On Friday, Greene warned that “Tlaib and the rest of the Hamas Caucus are bringing their ground troops” for another demonstration. "Will there be a suicide bomber among the crowd?” Greene tweeted.
To state the obvious, Greene's bigoted fear-mongering misrepresents what actually occurred, in what seems like a continued effort to whitewash the actual insurrection that happened Jan. 6, 2021.
Officials believed everyone at last week's protest went through security and entered the building according to guidelines, a U.S. Capitol Police spokesperson told NBC News' local affiliate in Washington.
The problem, the police said, was that demonstrations are not permitted inside congressional buildings. The agency tweeted that protesters were warned to stop demonstrating.
About 300 people were arrested, and three were charged with assault on a police officer during processing, the NBC News affiliate reported. Greene is looking to portray this as a harrowing ordeal when, for the most part, it seems to have been a largely nonviolent sit-in reminiscent of other civil rights protests.
That pales in comparison to the more than 2,500 pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol, with many attacking police officers and destroying property.
And, as best as I can tell, no feces were smeared on the wall at the demonstration for a cease-fire last week.
Greene may be trying to take some heat off the Jan. 6 rioters with her latest publicity stunt. But let’s be clear: What happened last week was not, by any means, an insurrection. Her claims might play well in the MAGA world. But in reality, they don't withstand even the slightest scrutiny.