Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) responded to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) calling Black Lives Matter “the most powerful domestic terrorists [sic] organization in our county” by demanding that the NRCC return her donation.
“In her brief time as a Republican star, she has peddled QAnon inspired conspiracies, promoted rhetoric that egged on the insurrection at the United States Capitol, planned a white supremacist caucus in Congress, and tweeted a racist statement in the wake of the Derek Chauvin verdict,” the DCCC chair told Politico. “While Democrats are fighting for racial justice, Republicans continue to let Taylor Greene’s disgraceful actions go unpunished.”
Greene also tweeted that D.C. was “completely dead” Tuesday night due to “fear of riots.” Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer, was found guilty on all charges related to his May 2020 killing of George Floyd, which sparked protests in D.C. and throughout the country last summer. In reality, D.C. had beefed up security in anticipation of a potential acquittal in the Chauvin case, which may have touched off furious demonstrations.
Maloney homed in on Greene’s $175,000 pledged donation to the NRCC, though it’s not the first time he demanded the sum be returned. On Tuesday, he berated the NRCC for keeping the money after Greene was linked to a draft proposal for an “America First Caucus,” which called for the preservation of “Anglo-Saxon political traditions.”
“While they continue to dodge questions about Greene’s racist platform, the NRCC has refused to return the $175,000 in campaign cash Greene funneled into their coffers,” a DCCC press release said.
The proposal for the caucus engendered backlash from both Democrats and Republicans, and Greene has since distanced herself, saying it was “a staff level draft proposal from an outside group that I hadn’t read.”
Attacking Greene is a key part of the DCCC’s 2022 midterms strategy, which it launched advertisements for unusually early, back in February.
The DCCC plans to yoke the party to the QAnon conspiracy theory, a wide-ranging and bizarre group of beliefs which center on the idea that a shadowy cabal of elites is pulling the strings of the government, formerly working to undermine President Trump’s presidency. Now, believers wait for Trump to be ushered back into the Oval Office and Democrats to face their comeuppance via jail or execution.
Greene has occasionally played coy with the conspiracy theory, though her prolific social media use has left plenty of fodder — “I’m very excited about that now there’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles out,” she said in 2017 — for Maloney to work with.
Recent DCCC press releases have also focused on Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who is reportedly under investigation by the Department of Justice for possible sex trafficking of a minor.
