A Georgia congressional candidate with a history of making racist, Islamophobic, and anti-Semitic comments posted an image on Facebook Thursday of herself holding a gun next to images of Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib.Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who looks set to sail into Congress after winning her primary last month, captioned the image, “We need strong conservative Christians to go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart.”“Americans must take our country back,” Greene added. Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and Tlaib — who are all known as members of the progressive “Squad” in the House— are all Americans.While the image itself has since been taken down, the caption remains on Facebook.Greene has a long history of making inflammatory and bigoted comments. She likened the 2018 midterms to “an Islamic invasion of our government,” according to recordings obtained by Politico. Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and Tlaib were all first elected to Congress that year.Per Politico, Greene has also said that Black people “are held slaves to the Democratic Party” and dismissed the reality of racial disparities in the United States. “Guess what? Slavery is over,” she said. “Black people have equal rights.”She also called billionaire Democrat George Soros, who is Jewish and a favorite target of conspiracy theorists, a Nazi, Politico reported.Despite these comments, President Donald Trump has enthusiastically embraced Greene.“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 last month. “Marjorie is strong on everything and never gives up—a real WINNER!”Greene, in turn, has praised Trump for his purported role in the QAnon conspiracy theory, which variously posits that Trump is quietly fighting off the “deep state” and that a global network of “elites” have cultivated a pedophile ring. These claims are not based in fact.“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, and I think we have the president to do it,” Greene has said.After Forbes asked Greene’s campaign whether the Facebook image was threatening violence, the campaign dismissed the idea as “paranoid and ridiculous.”“Fake news is always looking for the next conspiracy theory,” the campaign told Forbes. “Go back to bed.”On Twitter, Tlaib demanded that the Facebook post be taken down.“It’s dangerous in a time of rising political violence openly encouraged by this fascist President that a soon-to-be member of Congress thinks a post threatening women’s lives is acceptable,” the Michigan Democrat wrote in one tweet. “P.S. Imagine it was me with a rifle. The post would have been down in seconds.”“Posting a photo with an assault rifle next to the faces of three women of color is not advertising,” Omar tweeted. “It’s incitement.”In a tweet directed at Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, Omar added, “You have incited attacks on us since we were sworn in. You have told us to ‘go back’ to where we came from. This is your party now. Dangerous and disgraceful.”Cover: In this March 3, 2020, file photo, Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks to a GOP women's group in Rome, Ga. Greene, criticized for promoting racist videos and adamantly supporting the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, has won the GOP nomination for northwest Georgia's 14th Congressional District. (John Bailey/Rome News-Tribune via AP, File)
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