Members of Republican congressional leadership have come down hard on a candidate in a Georgia Republican primary for making anti-Semitic and other racist remarks.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and GOP conference chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) all criticized Marjorie Taylor Greene, a businesswoman, who will face neurosurgeon John Cowan in a run-off on Aug. 11 to succeed retiring Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
“These comments are appalling, and Leader McCarthy has no tolerance for them,” McCarthy spokesperson Drew Florio told Politico.
Politico reported that Greene suggested that Muslims do not belong in government; thinks black people “are held slaves to the Democratic Party”; called philanthropist George Soros, a Jewish Democratic mega-donor, a Nazi; and said she would feel “proud” to see a Confederate monument if she were black because it symbolizes progress made since the Civil War.
In addition to slamming Greene, Scalise endorsed Cowan.
“The comments made by Ms. Greene are disgusting, and don’t reflect the values of equality and decency that make our country great,” said Scalise in a statement. “I will be supporting Dr. Cowan.”
In a Facebook post, Greene slammed the Politico report.
“The Fake News Media, the DC Swamp, and their radical leftist allies see me as a very serious threat. I will not let them whip me into submission,” she wrote. “And the voters of Northwest Georgia will not let the DC Swamp and the Fake News Media tell them who to vote for.”
Greene has already come under fire for trafficking in conspiracy theories and posing for photos with former Ku Klux Klan leader Chester Doles and posting them on social media.
Republican Jewish Coalition executive director Matt Brooks told JNS last week that his organization hasn’t “been following this race, and it’s not on our targeted list of races.”
He added that if Greene wins, “we will not be endorsing or supporting her.”
“Our record of speaking out and opposing anti-Semites and white nationalists is pristine and unimpeachable,” Brooks told JNS on Wednesday. “We will be announcing our plans for Georgia, but rest assured, it is consistent with our strong record on speaking out.”
