Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene outraged opponents with her laughter at a hyperbolic remark by a constituent at a public meeting on Tuesday night who demanded the death penalty for “treason.”
“What is the penalty for treason? Ok? We know that treason has been released and nobody is prepared to answer for it. Something has got to be done. It’s treason. Our country, our Constitution has been stomped on repeatedly … People have got to be tried for treason,” the constituent asked.
Marjorie Taylor Greene broke out in laughter. “I think we are ending on a right note,” she said.
Marjorie Taylor Greene Previously Joked About Killing Democrats
The firebrand Representative previously joked that certain prominent Democrats should be killed. In 2019 Taylor-Greene suggested “a bullet to the head would be quicker” as a way to deal with Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In April 2018 Taylor-Greene suggested that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama should be hung for their role in the Iran nuclear deal.
“Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off,” she wrote.
Democrats Blast Greene
Democrats blasted her on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“The irony. MAGAts asking Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was part of the insurrection, calling for the execution of Democrats for treason, while Republicans are the only ones tried and convicted under the insurrection act. Disgusting,” wrote one X platform user.
Another used blasted Greene on X saying, “Marjorie Taylor Greene Praised a Call for Executing Political Opponents – So @RepMTG agrees treason should be awarded the death penalty. Good. Trump committed treason and she’s the pipe bomber.”
Hyperbolic Treason Accusations Recklessly Thrown
Such hysterical hyperbole has become all too common from both ends of the political spectrum in recent years.
Former President Donald Trump called Democrats who did not clap at his 2018 State of the Union speech “treasonous.”
“You’re up there, you’ve got half the room going totally crazy wild, they loved everything, they want to do something great for our country, and you have the other side even on positive news, really positive news like that, they were like death and un-American,” Trump said at a factory in Cincinnati. “Un-American. Somebody said treasonous. I mean, yeah, I guess, why not. Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.”
Democrats and NeverTrump Republicans similarly have cavalierly thrown around the treason accusation.
“Forget all the whispered denials and the off-the-record expressions of concern in private; ignore the knowing smirks on camera from GOP officials who are desperately trying to indicate that they’re in on the joke. Brush aside the caviling of the anti-anti-Trump writers who would rather talk about that time in 2017 when some Democrats objected to the Electoral College vote (and were gaveled down by Joe Biden himself),” Atlantic writer Tom Nichols wrote in a Jan. 4, 2021 column. “This is sedition, plain and simple. No amount of playacting and rationalizing can change the fact that the majority of the Republican Party and its apologists are advocating for the overthrow of an American election and the continued rule of a sociopathic autocrat.”
The singer Madonna talked about how she had thought about “blowing up the White House” in 2017 shortly after Trump became president.
Whether it’s Marjorie Taylor Greene or Madonna, such extreme rhetoric only serves to heighten passions and undermine civil discourse while furthering polarization and extremism on both ends of the political spectrum.
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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