Build A Wall! Around Georgia's 14th Congressional District

Congresswoman-elect Q-Anon

Georgia has elected some real nut cases to Congress in recent years. When I first introduced Jody Hice to DWT readers in 2014, right after he won his primary, I noted that "presuming Hice wins in November, he will enter Congress as the craziest and most extreme Member, and most observers have remarked that he almost makes lunatics like Paul Broun and Michele Bachmann, both of whom are retiring, look vaguely conventional. The only outside spending in the primary was from 2 gun-nut/domestic terrorism groups who find the NRA 'too liberal,' Gun Owners of America (who hasn't run ads for anyone in the country but Hice) and the National Association for Gun Rights (whose only other race this cycle was opposing Thad Cochran and supporting Chris McDaniel in Mississippi). Why are the gun worshippers so wild about Hice? Watch this clip from his crackpot radio show: 'It is my belief that any, any, any, any weapon that our government and law enforcement possesses ought to be allowed for individuals to possess in this country, provided they can afford it.' He goes on the explain why people should have cannons and bazookas and missiles. Really. He just got 54% of the vote against a former congressman's son-- not despite his views but because of them... With the Republicans still hoping to change their image before the midterms in order to appeal to a broader swath of the population, Hice is having none of it. He regularly lambasts the LGBT community and Muslim-Americans and he insists that gals who want to run for office get permission from their husbands."

Today Hice is one of the incumbents in his party's dominant and growing neo-fascist wing. So are fellow-Georgians Barry Loudermilk and Doug Collins. And they're about to add another, further extreme and overtly dangerous to American democracy than any of the others-- Marjorie Taylor Greene, sure to be one of the new Q-Anon Members of Congress. Who would put this stinking sack of garbage into Congress? Georgia Republicans that's who.

The district: GA-14 in the northwest corner of the state, has an R+27 PVI.. In 2016 the district gave Trump a 75.0% to 22.1% win over Hillary. Two years later, the so-called "blue wave" never reached GA-14. Far right congressman Tom Graves won all 12 counties and racked up a 175,743 (76.5%) to 53,981 (23.5%) win over Democrat Steven Foster. Brian Kemp did as well in his gubernatorial campaign. Today GA-14 is leading the nation into in a failed school reopening program that will send first Georgia and then the rest of the country into coronavirus Hell. Frankly, America would be better off if GA-14 became part of Russia. Oh... and their new soon-to-be member of Congress, Marjorie Greene is exactly what you would expect from that district-- exactly; she is them and they are her. Yesterday Washington Post reporters Rachel Bade and Isaac Stanley-Becker framed her primary runoff victory precisely how it should be framed: Trump, House Republicans embrace candidate who has made racist statements, drawing attention to party's tolerance for bigotry.

Trump's response to her win Tuesday was to call her a "future Republican star... a real WINNER." Q-Anon goes to Capitol Hill, even though Trump isn't likely to be in Washington next year and the Republican Party will be rushing to disassociate itself from having ever supported him for his agenda of hatred and divisiveness. Still, Kevin McCarthy said he'll seat Greene as a Republican on congressional committees.

The decision has left many House Republicans privately griping about irresponsible leadership, even as they do little publicly to challenge the party’s position or to state their opposition to Greene’s joining their conference if she is elected in November, as is expected, in a reliably Republican district.

Greene promotes the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose followers believe Trump is battling a cabal of “deep state” saboteurs of his administration who worship Satan and traffic children for sex. She has also made racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic comments, asserting that Black people are “held slaves to the Democratic Party,” likening the election of the first two Muslim women to Congress to an “Islamic invasion of our government” and calling George Soros, the liberal Jewish donor and Holocaust survivor, a “Nazi himself trying to continue what was not finished.”

Some retiring members spoke out against the party’s accepting Greene into its ranks, but those seeking reelection were reluctant to do so.

“How can we warmly receive someone that’s publicly stated some of the things she stated in her videos?” asked retiring Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-MI). “You can’t dismiss people because of their religious beliefs and their ethnicity. You can’t... It’s just wrong.”

The rise of Greene shines a spotlight on the GOP’s internal debate over how to handle fringe groups and candidates who support Trump and whom he often supports in return. Republicans privately acknowledge that there is no future for a party that antagonizes people of color and has members who make statements or take policy positions supported by white supremacists. But they also have done little to stand up to Trump, a president who embraces such rhetoric, and candidates who make those remarks.

...[Greene] has only doubled down on her controversial comments over the course of her campaign, offering a preview of the sort of oratory she might bring to Washington. On Wednesday, Greene used the Republicans’ online fundraising tool WinRed to solicit donations off using a vulgar and sexist expletive to describe House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

“Nancy Pelosi impeached @realDonaldTrump. She put our country through hell with the Russian collusion conspiracy,” Greene wrote. “She’s anti American & we’re going to kick that bitch out of Congress. RT & donate below to help make this happen.”

Those remarks are in line with the type of rhetoric Greene has used on the campaign trail. One ad depicted her racking the slide on a semiautomatic rifle while warning antifa, a loose collection of activists who oppose fascism and have sometimes embraced property damage and violent protest in recent years, to “stay the hell out of northwest Georgia.”

Facebook removed the material from its website, citing policy violations. She also rejected the notion that inequalities exist.

“Guess what? Slavery is over... Black people have equal rights,” she said in another video, first reported by Politico.

In response to the controversy over her comments, Greene defended herself in June and criticized House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) and House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY), both of whom condemned her remarks.

“Every Republican, every Christian Conservative is going to be called a racist and a bigot by the Fake News Media, as have Steve Scalise and Liz Cheney,” she said in a statement. “I’m sorry my future colleagues are unable to stand up to the pressure and fight back.”

...The division among Republicans over how to handle Greene’s runoff victory was apparent in Georgia on Wednesday. Some Republicans took to social media to congratulate her. Among them were Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and her primary challenger Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-GA), who are locked in a heated special election matchup.

Others, such as Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) withheld praise, reflecting the distinct political pressures at work in the state. Unlike Loeffler and Collins, who are competing for support in Georgia’s Republican strongholds, Perdue is fending off a challenge from Democrat Jon Ossoff.

Greene’s ascension could cause headaches for McCarthy, who faces growing discord within his ranks. More than a half-dozen members implored McCarthy to personally involve himself in the race. His own No. 2, Scalise, donated to and hosted a fundraiser for Greene’s primary opponent, John Cowan, a neurosurgeon, in hopes of stopping Greene.

Yet McCarthy-- after initially distancing himself from Greene-- decided to stay neutral. According to the candidate, he recently phoned her and signaled his support, though McCarthy’s office did not comment in response to questions about the encounter.

...“We look forward to Georgians Andrew Clyde and Marjorie Taylor Greene-- and all of our Republican candidates across the country-- winning in November so that we can enact policies to renew the American dream, restore our way of life, and rebuild the greatest economy in the world,” McCarthy’s office said in a statement. “It’s clear that the Democrat Party does not share those goals.” (Clyde is a Republican candidate in Georgia’s 9th Congressional District [the only Georgia district more backward and politically primitive than GA-14].)

Greene’s embrace of QAnon elevates within the party what many see as a dangerous conspiracy theory identified by the FBI as a potential domestic terrorism threat. But many of the president’s supporters have embraced parts or all of the theory, as has his campaign, to some degree.

Just hours after Trump tweeted praise for Greene, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who served in the U.S. Air Force in Iraq and Afghanistan, said on Twitter that there is “no place” for such beliefs in Congress and mocked Q, the supposed person working within the bureaucracy to protect Trump from the “deep state.”

“Qanon is a fabrication,” he wrote on Twitter. “This ‘insider’ has predicted so much incorrectly (but people don’t remember PAST predictions) so now has switched to vague generalities. Could be Russian propaganda or a basement dweller. Regardless, no place in Congress for these conspiracies.”

That observation, which mentioned neither Greene nor the president by name, drew a swift and critical response from the Trump campaign.

“When will @RepKinzinger condemn the Steele Dossier fabrications and conspiracy theories pushed by Democrats? That actually WAS Russian propaganda,” a campaign spokesman, Matt Wolking, wrote on Twitter.

But though Greene’s association with QAnon has trained a national spotlight on her district, many Republicans said they are more concerned about her racist comments tainting their ranks at a time when the party and Trump are already unpopular with communities of color.

...Greene is among numerous pro-Trump congressional candidates who have seemed to signal support for QAnon. More than a dozen of them will appear on the ballot in November. Unlike Greene, however, most stand little chance of being elected because their districts vote dependably for Democrats.

Some Republicans have justified the move to embrace Greene as the lesser of two evils. Sue Everhart, a former chairman of the Georgia GOP, said she disapproves of some of the candidate’s statements-- especially the talk of Satan common to the QAnon worldview. But she said she prefers Greene to a Democrat, arguing that no candidate is perfect and expressing optimism that Greene will change her ways upon arriving in Washington.

“She is a Republican, and I’m glad she got it, but let’s just say I wasn’t close to her,” she said. “I wish her all the luck in the world... I don’t speak ill of other Republicans.”

Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), doesn't have to worry about offending Trump and Q-Anon. He was just defeated in his primary reelection bid. He maddest completely clear yesterday what he thinks of Greene: "If she’s the future of the Republican party, we’re in trouble… Q-Anon is the mental gonorrhea of conspiracy theories. It’s disgusting and you want to get rid of it as fast as possible." I'm told that a majority of Republicans in Congress feel exactly the same way... but are afraid to say so.





Yesterday, Trump was on Fox Business News with Wall Street shill/GOP spokesperson Maria Bartiromo, blithely gaslighting away, completely unchallenged. Claiming the GOP is going to take back the House-- when it looks like they will lose another 2 dozen or more seats in an anti-red tsunami-- Trump also warned Republican Senate incumbents that if they don't embrace his increasingly insane and unpopular pronouncements they're going to lose in November. "We’re fighting very hard in the Senate, political commentator Donald J. Trump pronounced. "I’ll be honest [which would be a first], the Senate is tough. We have a couple of people that aren’t as supportive of Trump as they should be, and those people are going to lose their elections. The ones that don’t support, and I’m just talking, take a look... you have a few people that want to be cute, and those people are going to lose their elections. And that’s a problem for the Senate." He didn't say who, but he was clearly talking about Susan Collins (R-ME) and, to a loser extent, Cory Gardner (R-CO). I wonder what he would have said had Bartiromo read him the Kinzinger quote.