Amid Latest Controversy, Greene and Gaetz To Hold Dalton Rally

WASHINGTON, DC —Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-14th-Rome) and fellow congressional lightning rod Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) are scheduled to hold an "America First" rally in Dalton on Thursday, according to WRCBTV. The rally is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the Dalton Convention Center, and those interested in attending can register online.

It will be the latest joint appearance by two of Congress' most controversial figures. The pair also appeared Friday at an event in Mesa, Arizona, and earlier this month at The Villages retirement community in Florida. According to AZCentral.com, the rally in Arizona helped raise campaign cash for Gaetz, who is the subject of an ongoing investigation of sex trafficking of an underage girl.

At Friday's rally, Greene and Gaetz repeated false statements about the 2020 presidential election being stolen; Greene called people who vote for Democrats "idiots"; and she insulted a group of progressive Democratic House members by calling them the "Jihad Squad," according to AZCentral.com

But Greene also criticized fellow Republicans for not keeping their promises.

"This is why so many people don't vote. They don't trust Republicans to do the job," Greene said. "We need our Republican conference in Congress to do what they say they're going to do."

Over the weekend, several Republicans joined the growing list of critics who blasted Greene for comments she made earlier in the week on the conservative podcast/TV show "The Water Cooler with David Brody," in which she compared the House mask mandate to laws forcing Jews to wear yellow stars during the Holocaust. According to CNN, Greene accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of being a hypocrite for asking GOP members to prove they have all been vaccinated before members of the House can be in the chamber without a mask.

"You know, we can look back at a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany," Greene said. "And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about."

Greene then doubled down when asked about the comments at the Arizona rally.

"I stand by all of my statements ... I said nothing wrong," Greene told an Arizona reporter, according to CNN.

On Friday, the American Jewish Congress called out Greene for her comments, writing on Twitter: "Such comparisons demean the Holocaust & contaminate American political speech. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene must immediately retract and apologize."

A Change.org petition was started to have House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) expel Greene from Congress; by Monday morning, it had 49,678 signatures.

The criticism also came from Greene's own party. On Saturday, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) tweeted "This is evil lunacy," with a link to the "Water Cooler" interview.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois) retweeted with same interview with the words "Absolute sickness."

Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Michigan) called Greene's comments "beyond reprehensible" in a Sunday interview on CNN"s "State of the Union."

"This is, I don't even have words to describe how disappointing it is to see this hyperbolic speech that frankly amps up and plays into a lot of the antisemitism that we've been seeing in our society today," Meijer said.

On Monday morning, Greene was trending on Twitter after trading insults with University of California, Berkeley professor and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who said Sunday that Greene must be expelled from Congress.

Greene responded on Twitter: "Being a communists professor, you've never done the real hard work that builds the economy, you just teach ideas that will destroy it."

Finally, Greene's Monday morning included a social media dig at Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. On Twitter, Greene said Fauci "lied and must be fired and investigated."

"His Dr. Frankenstein experiments are evil," Greene wrote on Twitter. "The only way to clean up America is to get rid of those in government that think they can play God and use the government like some sort of church."