Opinion: Marjorie Taylor Greene thinks she fools you. Does she?

AP Photo by John Raoux / Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., answers questions during a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Saturday. She also was the keynote speaker at another event over the weekend — a white nationalist event of the America First Political Action Conference.
AP Photo by John Raoux / Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., answers questions during a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Saturday. She also was the keynote speaker at another event over the weekend — a white nationalist event of the America First Political Action Conference.

On the last day of February - and of Black History Month - the North Georgia town of Cohutta in Whitfield County was working to preserve its African American Civic District. Sixty years, when racial segregation was the law, Red Clay Road and former Andrews Chapel there thrived as a relatively middle-class Black community.

The chapel was home to an African Methodist Episcopal Church congregation that dated to the 1870s, and a one-room schoolhouse that educated Black children from 1st through 6th grades. The church has been closed for more than 30 years, so it is admirable town officials want to save the buildings and the history.

But just down the road in Floyd County's Rome, Georgia, Black history received a ugly reminder: U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene - who represents both counties and most of the rest of Northwest Georgia, chose to be the keynote speaker at a white supremacist event in Florida over the weekend.

Certainly MTG's racist and anti-Semitic comments and views aren't unknown, though she always feigns naivete. But this time, even a handful of Republicans are rejecting her.

It's long overdue. Sitting Republican members of Congress speaking at a white nationalist event is a problem, and GOP leaders tolerating it is an even bigger a problem.

When Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar spoke at this same event - the America First Political Action Conference last year (this year he spoke again, albeit by video), GOP leaders largely ignored it. Gosar faced no official sanctions.

This year, some prominent GOPers are speaking up.

"Look, there is no place in either political party for this White nationalism or racism. It's simply wrong it's evil as well," said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.

Liz Cheney tweeted, "As Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep Paul Gosar speak to this white supremacist, anti-Semitic, pro-Putin event, silence by Republican Party leaders is deafening and enabling. All Americans should renounce this garbage and reject the Putin wing of the GOP now.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has said he and his leadership team will not only condemn their members who spoke at the event, but they'll also take meaningful action to make clear that today's GOP will not tolerate associations with white nationalists.

The key question, of course, is will they put their money where their mouth is and say the party will not support Greene's and Gosar's re-election campaigns. Even this afternoon, the National Republican Congressional Committee, known as the NRCC, was still raising money on its web page for Greene and Gosar.

One would think that if the RNC can condemn Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for daring to seek the truth about the Jan. 6 attack, the party could be equally emphatic in rebuking Republicans who associate with racist extremists.

But we'll not hold our breaths.

Here's a little flavor of this year's event where Greene accepted an invitation from organizer Nick Fuentes, a man who has been banned from most major social media platforms for his white nationalist rhetoric.

Fuentes praised Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at one point asking for "a round of applause for Russia." The crowd obliged and chanted Putin's name. Fuentes called the United States government the "Great Satan." He also reprised the white nationalist slogan "you will not replace us," famously used at the 2017 white nationalist march in Charlottesville. And after all that, a smiling Greene joined him on the stage.

But local Republicans and Democrats get it.

The Rome (Georgia) News Tribune reported Sunday that former Floyd County Republican Party Chairman Andy Garner called on her hometown party to denounce her appearance at the white nationalist conference.

"I spent 10 years building our Republican Party here in Rome - three of those years as county chair," Garner said in a statement quoted by the paper. "I care deeply about our party and my community. This is not who we are. It's time to stand up to Mrs. Greene.

"She accepted an invitation and spoke to a group of known white supremacists who cheered Russia and chanted 'Putin, Putin' BEFORE she spoke. She spoke anyway," Garner wrote. "Ukraine is burning and our European allies fear what Putin will do next."

Greene later claimed to news reporters that when she went as the headline speaker to the Nazi rally, she didn't know what the organization was about, and didn't know anything about their leader who invited and introduced her. She said she went because his following "is young people" and she cares about young people.

Let's have a reality check: Fuentes has gained infamy for making many anti-Semitic comments, denying the Holocaust happened, and opposing women's right to vote. The Republican Jewish Coalition calls him a "Nazi-sympathizer." Earlier this month, Fuentes said he was seeking "total Aryan victory."

North Georgians, if MTG is too stupid to research to whom she's speaking and so stupid she thinks you'll believe that, she's too stupid to represent you. (Did we mention she has four GOP primary challengers, three Democratic challengers and a libertarian challenger?)

But she did know what they are about, because she later tweeted: "I want to embrace the young, boisterous and energetic conservatives in our movement - not cancel them like the establishment does."

Folks, Marjorie Taylor Greene has shown us time and time again who and what she is. A zero.

Upcoming Events