Show an ad over header. AMP  

Conspiracy-backing GOP candidate invited to White House for Trump's acceptance speech

25 August 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican nominee for Georgia's 14th congressional district, said in a tweet on Tuesday that President Trump has invited her to the White House to attend his acceptance speech on Thursday evening.

Why it matters: Greene has repeatedly made offensive remarks about Black people, Jews and Muslims in Facebook videos, and has publicly supported the QAnon movement and other far-right conspiracy theories.

Context: QAnon purports, without proof, that posts by an anonymous internet user from within the federal government are alluding to a secret war that a cabal of pedophiles and cannibals is waging against President Trump.

  • The FBI flagged internet conspiracy theories like QAnon as potential domestic terrorist threats in 2019.
  • Greene told Fox News last week that her QAnon-supporting videos no longer represent her, and that "once I started finding misinformation, I decided that I would choose another path."

What she's saying: "I’m honored and thrilled to be invited to attend President Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday evening at the White House," Greene tweeted. "I’m also equally excited to vote for him again November 3rd, and I’m working hard all over Georgia to help him win."

  • The White House and the Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comments.

I’m honored and thrilled to be invited to attend President Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday evening at the White House.

I’m also equally excited to vote for him again November 3rd, and I’m working hard all over Georgia to help him win.#gapol#sasspic.twitter.com/ADBTkXeEyH

— Marjorie Taylor Greene For Congress🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) August 25, 2020

House Republican leaders, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, criticized Greene after Facebook videos surfaced of her claiming that Black people "are held slaves to the Democratic Party." McCarthy has since said she will be welcomed into the GOP conference if she wins in November.

  • Greene has also said she believes Muslims should not serve in government, called George Soros a Nazi and claimed that the 2017 Las Vegas shooting was a targeted operation to help pass "anti-gun legislation." Soros is a Holocaust survivor.
  • In 2017 blog posts, Greene speculated that the 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was an "inside job," and promoted "Pizzagate," a baseless conspiracy alleging that some Democratic Party leaders are running a human-trafficking and pedophilia ring, according to CNN.

The big picture: Trump congratulated Greene in early August for winning the Republican nomination for Georgia 14th district, calling her a "future Republican star." She is likely to win a seat in the House in November's general election.

  • President Trump claimed at a press conference last week that he does not know a lot about QAnon, but that he understands its supporters "like me very much" and that they "love America."
  • On Tuesday, a pair of bipartisan lawmakers introduced a House resolution to condemn QAnon.

Go deeper: QAnon's 2020 resurgence

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

Section2

Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.