Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is applying a label frequently applied to conservatives to the Democratic Party.
The Georgia congresswoman appeared on Fox News’ “Hannity.” She discussed the amount of attention devoted to riots during the racial justice protests in 2020 and the time spent on the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Host Sean Hannity asked, “Why ignore 574 riots and only focus on the one?”
“That’s exactly right,” Greene responded. “This is an organized effort by the Left, and it’s something that every single American needs to take seriously.”
She went on, “Antifa are the ground troops of the Democrat Party… This is who the Democrat Party is. They are the domestic terrorists, and Antifa needs to be held accountable.”
“And the Department of Justice better start doing their job,” Greene added.
Watch the video below:
.@RepMTG: "Antifa are the ground troops of the Democrat party." pic.twitter.com/CtM3vfgOia
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) March 7, 2023
The exchange comes as at least 23 people are expected to be hit with domestic terrorism charges after violent protests at the planned site of a law enforcement training center in Atlanta, Georgia.
It also comes after Fox News host Tucker Carlson released some of the 40,000 hours of footage from the Jan. 6 riot he was given in an attempt to downplay the violence that day. Carlson focused on one part of the footage, which appeared to show law enforcement walking with the so-called “QAnon Shaman” in the Capitol and declining to try to stop him.
“The tapes show the Capitol police never stopped Jacob Chansley. They helped him. They acted as his tour guides,” Carlson insisted. “If he was in the act of committing such a grave crime, why didn’t the officers standing right next to him place him under arrest?”
Some of the Right have an interest in seeking to downplay Jan. 6 by playing videos of people apparently peacefully strolling through the Capitol like tourists. And videos show there, indeed, were people behaving in such a fashion. But there were also violent individuals who brutally battled with law enforcement and defaced the building.
The riot on Jan. 6 really jump-started the push by commentators to label Republicans domestic terrorists.
There certainly are some deranged individuals on the conservative spectrum who have resorted the violence for despicable reasons such as trying to throw out the votes of millions of their citizens, or hatred toward immigrants. And those acts should not be glossed over or downplayed.
But there are also deranged individuals on the Left who commit acts of violence fueled by their political views, ranging from allegedly killing a teen because he was a “Republican extremist” to firebombing crisis pregnancy centers. And those individuals also should not be ignored.
However, taking a relatively small group of violent people on the fringe and labeling a whole party as domestic terrorists is irresponsible. If you view your political opponents as terrorists who are not being made to face justice, what other option do you have but to take matters into your own hands?
And it is not even an accurate depiction. Eighty-one million people voted for President Joe Biden, and 74 million people voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020. There is simply no way a sizable portion of either party is made up of domestic terrorists. If that were the case, our country would be in much worse shape.