House Republicans are likely soon to be joined by a woman who believes in violent conspiracies, spews hateful racist rhetoric and is part of a movement the FBI has labeled a potential domestic terrorism threat. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an unabashed promoter of "QAnon" conspiracy fantasies, has won a congressional primary in Georgia and is all but certain to win the general election in January in the state's heavily Republican 14th District.
Mainstream Republicans don't endorse Greene's toxic lunacy, but their failure to stop her from advancing shows the GOP still has a crazy-racist problem that it can't seem to shake. Speaking of which, Greene has already found an apparent ally in President Donald Trump, which should prompt all serious Republicans to ask what's happening to their party.
QAnon is the far-right movement that stokes the baseless belief in a complex "deep state" conspiracy that runs America, which Trump is valiantly confronting while allies in classified positions drop clues to the movement's adherents. Its claims include the existence of an international child-sex trafficking ring run by top Democrats, and an approaching coup by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Oh, and remember that long, contentious investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into the Trump campaign's Russia connections? That was actually all a front so that Mueller could secretly help Trump flush out the real traitors.
Yes, these people are truly crackers. And one of them seems destined soon to have a vote in the U.S. House.
Greene isn't just a conspiracy nut but also a right-wing hatemonger and racist whose demeanor is exactly the opposite of what Congress needs right now. Greene has made disparaging remarks about Blacks and Jews, and has falsely claimed Obama is a Muslim who has "opened up our borders to an invasion by Muslims." Any notion that winning her primary would detoxify Greene went out the window on the very night of her victory party, where she called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "that bitch," called her fellow Republicans "spineless," expelled journalists and then gloated about it on Twitter.
Some congressional Republicans are aptly appalled at their soon-to-be colleague. There's "no place in Congress for these conspiracies," tweeted Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois. But Trump, displaying his usual level of character judgment, called her "a future Republican star" who is "strong on everything" and is "a real winner."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy could have fought for Greene's primary opponent, as some other House Republicans did, but instead he stayed neutral. You'd think the GOP's draining experience with the exiting Rep. Steve King — the unreconstructed white nationalist who the party has been trying to sideline for years, and who was finally beaten in his Iowa primary this year — would have taught them something about nipping this kind of thing in the bud. Apparently not.
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