QAnon representative claims fundraising haul amid controversies

United States Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is not backing down in the face of calls by Democrats in the House of Representatives to censure her.

The newly elected Republican, who has been making waves since she arrived in Washington, claimed on Friday she had received $1.6m in donations after Democrats criticised her.

“Here’s my message to the radical left wing Democrat mob and the fake news media trying to take me out,” said Greene, who has backed QAnon conspiracy theories.

“Every attack. Every lie. Every smear strengthens my base of support at home and across the country because people know the truth and are fed up with the lies,” Greene in a statement.

Greene represents a rural corner of the US state of Georgia. She wore a mask on the House floor that said “Trump Won” when she was sworn in as a new member on January 3.

Tensions between Democratic and Republican members of the House have risen since the US Capitol was overrun on January 6 by a mob convinced the election was being stolen from Trump. Instead, Joe Biden was certified the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

Representative Cori Bush, a Democrat from Missouri, said on Friday she was moving her office away from Greene’s in one of the House’s office buildings after a run-in with Greene.

Bush is an African American woman, a progressive Democrat and former Black Lives Matter activist from Missouri. She has called for the expulsion from Congress of Greene and other Republicans associated with protesters who stormed the Capitol.

A maskless Marjorie Taylor Greene & her staff berated me in a hallway. She targeted me & others on social media.

I’m moving my office away from hers for my team’s safety.

I’ve called for the expulsion of members who incited the insurrection from Day 1. Bring H.Res 25 to a vote.

— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) January 29, 2021

Criticism of Greene is not just coming from Democrats.

The Republican Jewish Coalition, a political advocacy group based in Washington, issued a statement on Friday saying Greene “is far outside the mainstream of the Republican Party”.

The group had opposed Greene during the 2020 election campaign.

“She repeatedly used offensive language in long online video diatribes, promoted bizarre political conspiracy theories and refused to admit a mistake after posing for photos with a long-time white supremacist leader,” the coalition said.

Representative Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat, introduced a resolution in the House calling for Greene to be expelled after a CNN report on January 26 uncovered social media posts by Greene suggesting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be hanged or shot.

New security measures might be needed in the House “when the enemy is within”, Pelosi said at her weekly press conference on Thursday.

Green had liked a comment in 2019 that a “bullet to the head would be quicker” than an election for removing Pelosi.

Greene also had previously denied a 2018 mass shooting ever happened at a school in Florida that killed 17 people.

And she has come in for new criticism after a video surfaced of her confronting gun control advocate David Hogg, a 20-year-old survivor of the shooting.

I try not to elevate foolishness or those who perpetuate it. But my colleagues who have chosen to use their time in the People’s House to attack a survivor of a high school mass shooting have reached a new low. The GOP must either condemn or own this disgusting behavior.

— Rep. Val Demings (@RepValDemings) January 29, 2021

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy “plans to have a conversation with the congresswoman” about her “deeply disturbing” comments, a McCarthy aide has said.

Greene has been mocked on social media for a post she once made suggesting a forest fire was started using secret “Rothschild Inc” laser beams from space.

I can’t actually start fires with a space laser, but I can hold Marjorie Taylor Greene accountable for saying I can and calling for the execution of our nation’s elected leaders. That’s why I introduced legislation to censure her & call for her resignation.

— Sara Jacobs (@SaraJacobsCA) January 29, 2021

Greene is making clear she has no intention of backing off.

“While big PACs and powerful corporations refuse to donate to Republicans and cave to the vicious cancel culture mob, the people have my back,” she said on Friday.

“The same 75 million people who voted for President Trump. Voters who will be vital to Republicans taking back the House in 2022,” she said.

McCarthy met Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday. The two talked about strategy for regaining a Republican majority in the House in the 2022 election.