U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene equated "the media" with adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory in an unapologetic speech Thursday before an expected House vote to strip her of all her committee assignments amid bipartisan outrage over her promotion of violence against political opponents.
The Republican congresswoman from Georgia, wearing a blue face mask emblazoned with the words "free speech," drew the comparison while delivering remarks on the House floor as part of a debate on a resolution to throw her off the education and budget committees.
"Will we allow the media - that is just as guilty as QAnon of presenting truth and lies - to divide us?" Greene said. "Will we allow ourselves to be addicted to hate and hating one another? I hope not."
Earlier in her speech, Greene claimed she regrets some "words of the past" and that she's actually "a very regular American."
She explained that, despite her numerous Facebook and Twitter posts to the contrary, she understands that the 9/11 attacks "definitely happened" and that school shootings are "absolutely real." She claimed she only started believing crackpot conspiracy theories about the tragedies being faked because of her lack of trust in "the government."
"None of us are perfect," she said.
But Greene did not address her long history of endorsing violence against Democrats.
Instead, she offered a non-specific renunciation of the various incendiary statements she made in 2018, 2019 and 2020 that prompted the House to advance the resolution to rescind her committee assignments this week.
"These things do not represent me," she said.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., who chairs the House Budget Committee, said afterward that Greene's speech was "not an apology" and noted she didn't utter a word about her past calls for killing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other high-profile Democrats.
"And to equate the media to QAnon is beyond the pale," McGovern said.
QAnon, a baseless theory that first originated on far-right internet forums in 2017, posits that high-profile Democrats are participants in a global child sex trafficking ring that also involves Satanism and cannibalism. According to the theory, former President Donald Trump is on a covert quest to expose the pedophiles.
Before she was elected in November, Greene regularly used her social media handles to promote the outlandish claims. "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," she said in a since-deleted YouTube video from 2017.
The House is expected to pass the resolution to bar Greene from serving on committees Thursday afternoon after the debate concludes.