Donald Trump congratulated QAnon believer Marjorie Taylor Greene on Wednesday morning for winning her Republican primary runoff race in Georgia’s 14th congressional district – despite other senior party members previously condemning her.
‘Congratulations to future Republican Star Marjorie Taylor Greene on a big Congressional primary win in Georgia against a very tough and smart opponent,’ Trump tweeted.
‘Marjorie is strong on everything and never gives up – a real WINNER!’ he praised.
Immediately following her victory Tuesday night Greene took aim at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling her ‘anti-American’ and a ‘b***h’ during her victory speech, which was shared on Facebook.
‘I just wanna say to Nancy Pelosi. She’s a hypocrite. She’s anti-American. And we’re going to kick that b***h out of Congress,’ Greene said.
Her remarks were met with loud cheers from her audience.
When Pelosi was asked Wednesday about Greene winning and her remarks about her, the California Democrat insinuated Republicans are OK with her comments.
‘They seem to be comfortable with it,’ Pelosi said.
The GOP candidate has garnered national attention after expressing her support for the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon and has faced widespread criticism for a series of racist comments.
Donald Trump issued praise Wednesday morning for QAnon believer Marjorie Taylor Greene for winning the Republican primary election in Georgia’s 14th district Tuesday night
Greene (pictured center) beat neurosurgeon John Cowan in a primary runoff for the open seat in northwest Georgia. During her victory speech, which was shared on Facebook, Greene icalls Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a ‘b***h’
‘I just wanna say to Nancy Pelosi. She’s a hypocrite. She’s anti-American. And we’re going to kick that b***h out of Congress,’ Greene said
After her harsh words toward Pelosi, she delved into an attack on progressive New York City Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
‘And we are not going to ever allow AOC’s Green New Deal to be passed to destroy our economy and our energy industry,’ Greene said.
She then blasted the Black Lives Matter movement.
‘We are not going to allow them to tear our country down, burn our cities, riot and loot. We won’t have that here in northwest Georgia. We don’t play those games here.
‘And we’re going to take that message all the way across America because it needs to stop now,’ she added.
Greene beat neurosurgeon John Cowan in the Republican primary runoff for the open seat on Tuesday in the deep-red district in northwest Georgia.
Current Congressman Tom Graves, who has represented the district since 2013, did not run for reelection.
Greene emerged victorious even after several GOP officials denounced her campaign after videos surfaced in which she expressed racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim sentiments.
‘WE WON! Thank you for your support! Save America. Stop Socialism,’ Greene tweeted late Tuesday.
A video posted to her Twitter account of her victory party showed a room full of supporters gathered closely together. Few, if any, wore face masks to protect themselves against the coronavirus.
In another clip of her victory speech posted to social media, Greene said she decided to enter politics because the country is heading in the wrong direction.
‘So the Republican establishment was against me. The DC swamp has been against me. And the lying fake news media hates my guts,’ she said. ‘Yep, it’s a badge of honor.’
Greene has amassed tens of thousands of followers on social media, where she often posts videos of herself speaking directly to the camera.
Those videos have helped propel her popularity with her base, while also drawing strong condemnation from some future would-be colleagues in Congress.
On social media, Greene claimed the ‘GOP establishment, the media, & the radical left, spent months & millions of dollars attacking me’
Several high-profile Republicans spoke out against Greene, including House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Rep Jody Hice of Georgia, who rescinded an endorsement of Greene
In a series of videos unearthed just after Greene placed first in the initial June 9 Republican primary, she complains of an ‘Islamic invasion’ into government offices, claims Black and Hispanic men are held back by ‘gangs and dealing drugs,’ and pushes an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is Jewish, collaborated with the Nazis.
Several high-profile Republicans then spoke out against her. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana quickly threw his support behind Cowan, while Rep Jody Hice of Georgia rescinded an endorsement of Greene.
Greene also addressed criticism of her comments on Twitter.
‘The Fake News Media, the DC Swamp, and their radical leftist allies see me as a very serious threat. I will not let them whip me into submission,’ she said, without distancing herself from her earlier remarks.
Greene is also part of a growing list of candidates who have expressed support for QAnon, the far-right US conspiracy theory popular among some supporters of President Donald Trump.
She has positioned herself as a staunch Trump supporter and emphasizes a strongly pro-gun, pro-border wall and anti-abortion message. She has also connected with voters through an intensive effort to travel the district and meet people on the ground.
Larry Silker, a 72-year-old retiree, cast a ballot for Greene last week at an early voting location in Dallas, Georgia.
‘She seems to be a go-getter, you know. She’s out seeing everybody that she can, and I think that’s nice,’ Silker said.
Asked whether he had seen criticism of Greene’s remarks, Silker said: ‘Well yeah, you know, you see it. But do you put faith in it? You just have to weigh it out.’
Republican Representative Tom Graves did not run for reelection, but solidly won his last race in 2018 with 76 per cent of the vote
Voter Pamela Reardon said she supports Greene because she connects with people, and she’s anti-abortion, a defender of the Second Amendment and ‘a true Christian’.
‘I got behind her because of her honesty,’ she said. ‘She’s not going to be bought by anybody. I could tell that her heart was pure.’
Reardon is familiar with criticism of Greene’s social media posts and videos but says ‘she’s never said anything racist like they say she has,’ and blamed attacks by her opponent’s campaign.
Georgia’s 14th district stretches from the outskirts of metro Atlanta to the largely rural northwest corner of the state – and by all previous indicators, there’s almost no chance it will swing blue in November.
Rep. Graves won his latest reelection in 2018 with 76 per cent of the vote.
Greene came in first place with 40.3 per cent of the vote in the original primary election in June, but did not earn a high enough threshold to outright earn the nomination.
She will face Democrat Kevin Van Ausdal in November.
WHAT IS QANON?
Origins: Q Anon started on fringe website 4chan, where a poster calling themselves Q left messages claiming to be a senior federal official and purporting to reveal a ‘deep state’ cabal intent on bringing down Donald Trump. Q grew out of the discredited Pizzagate conspiracy that top Democrats were involved in pedophilia and cannibalism from the basement of a Washington D.C. restaurant, but quickly picked up steam with ‘Q’ leaving ‘clues’ and claims that Trump was going to bring down the deep state. Whenever the conspiracies turn out to not be true, followers rationalize that the inaccuracies are part of Q’s larger plan.
Who is Q?: There may now be multiple people posing as Q on the anonymous 4chan boards
A QAnon believer blocked the bridge near Hoover Dam with a homemade armored tank in the name of the movement, and later pleaded guilty to terrorism
Hoover Dam: In June 2019, 32-year-old Matthew Wright, a QAnon supporter, blocked the bridge near Hoover Dam in Arizona with a homemade armored vehicle in a 90-minute stand-off. He pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and has written two letters to Donald Trump from jail, which include the sign-off, which has become the QAnon motto: “For where we go one, we go all.”
Michael Flynn: Trump’s former national security adviser became a martyr figure for QAnon believers after he took a plea deal from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, admitting he lied about his Russia contacts. QAnon conspiracy have spun Flynn pleading guilty into him being a persecuted victim of the deep state – and some even claim he is ‘Q.’
Many believers put three star emojis next to their Twitter handles. But the retired three-star general has denounced any connections to the group and pulled out of participating in an event after finding out it was hosted by a QAnon believer.
QAnon believers make former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn out to be a martyr after taking a plea deal with Robert Mueller
QAnon Political Candidates: Jo Rae Perkins, 64, won the Republican primary in Oregon in May to run for a Senate seat against incumbent Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley. “I stand with Q and the team,” she said when asked about her interest in the group. She insisted she goes to QAnon message boards as a “source of information” and claims media focuses too much on the group. Perkins won 49 per cent of the vote against three other Republicans.
Marjorie Taylor Greene came in first place in the Republican primary in a deep-red Georgia district, and will enter an August runoff. She has admitted to believing in several QAnon conspiracy theories.