House Democrats’ campaign arm seizes on latest Greene controversy

The campaign arm for House Democrats is seizing on the latest controversy surrounding Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), indicating the party plans on highlighting the conservative firebrand’s provocative remarks in the 2022 midterms. 

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), looked to tie top Republicans to Greene after the Georgia lawmaker has made repeated comments comparing mask mandates to the treatment of Jews during the Holocaust.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene’s insistence on trivializing the torture and murder of six million Jewish people to draw a ridiculous comparison to mask-wearing is reckless, offensive, and truly asinine. Even worse is Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy [R-Calif.] and NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer’s absolute cowardice and inaction after her repeated racist and antisemitic comments,” Maloney said in a statement, referencing Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). “Both McCarthy and Emmer are silent on whether they’ll return the $175,000 she pledged to the NRCC. Without real action, McCarthy and Emmer’s refusal to hold her accountable for these disgusting comparisons make them complicit in the hateful ideas she spouts.”

The latest rebuke comes as the GOP deals with the fallout from Greene’s comparison of rules regarding mask wearing on the House floor to the Holocaust.

In the face of ballooning criticism, Greene made more controversial remarks Tuesday, tweeting that “Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear a gold star.” 

Those remarks sparked pushback from top House GOP leaders, including McCarthy and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House minority whip.

“Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling. The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity committed in history. The fact that this needs to be stated today is deeply troubling,” McCarthy said in a statement.

Lauren Fine, a spokeswoman for Scalise, added that “he does not agree with these comments and condemns these comparisons to the Holocaust. We also need to be speaking out strongly against the dangerous anti-Semitism that is growing in our streets and in the Democrat party, resulting in an alarming number of horrific violent attacks against Jews.” 

The NRCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill. 

Greene is no stranger to controversy, garnering backlash over past social media posts calling for violence against Democrats and supporting conspiracy theories such as QAnon. 

Democrats have tried to paint Greene and the QAnon conspiracy theory as the face of the GOP in the past, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in February sending out a press release referring to McCarthy as “Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Q-CA).”