Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has repeatedly lied about the existence of widespread election fraud over the past few years, describing it as a fundamental attack on the American republic.
Now, though? It’s apparently a big joke.
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In a video featuring Greene and former Georgia congressional candidate Mallory Staples taken at a local GOP event in Georgia last week, Staples told supporters to “get out and vote with your 20 closest friends and neighbors.” And Greene added with a laugh: “Make it 40. Vote one, two, three times, whatever.”
“Whatever the law will allow you to do,” added Staples, who finished a distant third in her primary this year. “Which in Georgia is almost anything.” (Greene’s comments were first flagged by the liberal-leaning Twitter account PatriotTakes.)
Greene, a far-right freshman in Congress, has repeatedly claimed without evidence that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and voted against certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.
As recently as May, Greene testified under oath that she believed there was “a tremendous amount of fraudulent activity” in that election, though she insisted that she played no part in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and that she was “not asking [protesters] to actively engage in violence.” (In the past, however, Greene has endorsed calls for violence against Democratic leaders.)
During the 2020 campaign, Trump told supporters in North Carolina to both send in an absentee ballot and go to the polls to vote, prompting state election officials to issue a warning to not do that, because it is a crime.
While this all might be a laugh for Greene, people in several states have lost their freedom for trying to vote without being eligible. In Florida, voters passed a referendum in 2018 allowing people previously convicted of felonies to register to vote—which was then severely weakened by the state Legislature. At least 10 Floridians have been charged with voter fraud after an Alachua County official helped them register to vote, ProPublica reported this year.
Greene has recently doubled and tripled down on her claims that the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was unwarranted political persecution, introducing articles to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland and hawking “Defund the FBI” hats and shirts on her campaign site.
During the same event in Forsyth County, Greene said the FBI “is probably coming after me, they’re probably coming after many people, but the real truth is that they’re coming after the American people,” echoing Trump and the mainstream Republican party line since the raid.
She also presented the FBI investigation into Trump as some sort of unholy war on Christians.
“God has a plan, and I fully believe that, I have no fear over what is happening,” Greene said. “But I also know this…we’re going to defeat our enemies, and we’re going to hold them accountable for what they’re doing, and that is what they’re terrified of because they know it’s coming.”
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