NewsRescue
Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has defended her characterization of Democrats as a “party of pedophiles,” refusing to retract the remark after 60 Minutes host Lesley Stahl called it “over-the-top” during an interview on Sunday.
“They are not pedophiles,” Stahl insisted, questioning the Georgia representative’s statement.
Greene responded that Democrats “support grooming children,” specifically mentioning President Joe Biden’s support for “transgender surgeries” on children. “What pedophiles do to children is sexualize them,” the congresswoman insisted.
While Stahl responded with an eye roll and a request to stop the “personal attacks,” Greene pointed out that she had not started the war of words. “All they’ve done is call me names and insult me nonstop since I’ve been here,” she said, listing some of the epithets she has received during her brief career in Washington, including racist, anti-Semitic, and transphobic.
Greene promised last month that he would reintroduce legislation to prohibit the provision of “gender-affirming care” to children, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and certain surgeries.
The ‘Protect Children’s Innocence Act,’ which was defeated last year by a Democrat-controlled House, would impose strict prison sentences and fines on medical professionals who treat children in violation of the act, as well as prohibit the use of federal funds for any type of gender-affirming healthcare.
Last year, she called Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, a “pro-pedophile” for her court decisions “protect[ing] evil child predators,” implying that any senator who voted to confirm her was also complicit in pedophilia.
Greene, who was elected to Congress in 2020 with the help of then-President Donald Trump’s endorsement, was pressured to disavow social media posts expressing support for QAnon, a conspiracy theory that claims high-ranking Democrats (and some Republicans) are part of a cabal of devil-worshiping pedophiles. She has since apologized for publicly supporting the movement.
Following the January 6 riot, Democrats renewed their efforts to oust Greene from Washington, after she expressed support for the protesters who overran the Capitol in the hope of preventing Biden from becoming president, and blamed federal agents for the ensuing violence. She was later stripped of her committee assignments for her support of the rioters, and Twitter and Facebook blocked her from using their platforms.
However, some political opponents felt that this was insufficient, and they called for her to be barred from running for re-election to Congress in the 2022 midterm elections under the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding political office.
