Just when you think you’ve seen it all from Marjorie Taylor Greene, she comes swinging with more false, misleading, and dangerous propaganda.
The far-right Georgia U.S. representative shared a video on her Twitter account today of “exclusive” footage obtained by Fox News host Tucker Carlson for his talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight. In her post, Greene claims that the real victims of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot are not the people who died or had their lives threatened, but the MAGA supporters who have been unfairly targeted and persecuted by Democrats and the United States Department of Justice.
Greene — and Carlson — claim that over 40 thousand hours of unwatched footage from Jan. 6 paint the picture of a peaceful protest, not a riot.
“They’re not insurrectionists. They were sightseers,” says Carlson in the video. “They’re not destroying the Capitol. They obviously revere the capital… These are not rioters. These are people who wandered over from a political rally.”
Yes, you read that correctly. With the help of Fox News, Greene is trying to claim that the same people who shouted for former Vice President Mike Pence’s hanging and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s death were no more than peaceful protesters doing their civic duty. Put plainly, she’s trying to rewrite history by means of disinformation, a well-worn propaganda tactic by which the public is deliberately misled in order to further an agenda. Disinformation differs in intention from misinformation, in which false information or rumors may be mistakenly disseminated.
Even if we were to scrub our memories (and footage) of the evidence showing the violent mob shattering windows, carrying loaded firearms, and fatally stampeding over people, the fact remains that they broke the law. Peaceful or not, unlawful entry on the Capitol grounds is a crime under the Washington D.C. criminal code and federal law.
To suggest that the protesters were simply peacefully protesting not only lacks merit, but it’s also foolish, dangerous, and woefully inaccurate. Furthermore, Greene’s claims that Jacob Chansley (also known as the “QAnon Shaman,” and who became the face of the Jan. 6 insurrection) “nonviolently walk through the Capital” undermine that he, too, broke the law; a consequence that has landed him 41 months in prison.
Greene can make comparisons between MAGA supporters and Antifa all she wants, but to sit behind her keyboard and peddle the complete rewriting of history goes to show just how inadequate she is for office.