Kristen Welker Confronts Marjorie Taylor Greene on Past Comments Comparing Mask Mandates to Holocaust
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was confronted by NBC’s Kristen Welker over her past comments comparing congressional masking mandates to Nazi Germany.
Greene joined Meet the Press– on the day before her final day in Congress– to discuss, among other topics, the recent conservative debate over white nationalist Nick Fuentes and his role in the Republican Party.
Fuentes, who blatantly espouses anti-Semitic rhetoric, skyrocketed into prominence in October after his controversial interview with Tucker Carlson. Greene was criticized in 2022 for her speech to the America First Political Action Conference, an event which was organized by Fuentes.
“In 2022, you did speak at a conference organized by Nick Fuentes. He’s a white nationalist. He recently said that Hitler is, quote, ‘Cool.’ Let me ask you about your perspective right now,” said Welker “Do you believe there is room in the Republican Party for Nick Fuentes and anyone who shares that ideology, that Hitler is cool?”
Greene pushed back, claiming she believed that all speech be protected, even if distasteful.
“Here’s my situation and here’s my belief on people’s speech. I will always defend the First Amendment and free speech, no matter what kind of speech it is. Even speech that I find abhorrent or I disagree with, because I think that makes us uniquely American,” she said.
She continued:
What concerns me is that when we move towards censorship, and we saw that happen during COVID, I myself had my own Twitter account permanently banned because I spoke out against FDA’s rushed approval of the COVID vaccines. And I spoke out against lockdowns and forced masking. And, you know, when I look at people saying that certain types of speech needs to be censored, and we have been hearing that lately, that raises great concern for me. So I think it’s something that we have to take seriously is as Americans, we don’t have to agree with each other and we certainly can disagree, but we should overwhelmingly agree that free speech must be protected.
Greene’s X account was suspended in 2022, after her fifth “strike” against the platform’s misinformation policies, due to a tweet falsely alleged “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths.”
Greene’s account was not suspended over her repeated comments comparing Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to the Nazis because of her mask rules for the House– or her comparison of logos marking vaccinated employees to the gold stars Jewish people were forced to wear in the Holocaust. Welker noted the congresswoman’s words, drawing a parallel between those claims and Fuentes’.
“Well, let me just, I mean, during COVID, you did compare lockdowns to the Holocaust,” said Welker. “I understand your point about free speech, but let me press you there, because Nick Fuentes has said on his podcast, quote, ‘Hitler was awesome. Hitler was–‘”
The congresswoman interjected, forcefully claiming that she had been misquoted.
“No, that’s a misquote. Kirsten, that’s a misquote. That’s a misquote. That’s not correct,” she said. “I compared vaccine cards, being forced to take a vaccine in order to be able to keep a job or buy or sell, or be able to be admitted to restaurants. I compared that. I was not comparing. The Holocaust was horrible. I’m not comparing anything to that.”
Later in the interview, Greene repeated her previous claim that she didn’t know Fuentes, and that she spoke at the conference “because it was largely attended by young Americans and I care about that generation.”
Watch above via Meet the Press.
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