Marjorie Taylor Greene Goes Full Kook With Mass Shooting Conspiracy Theory

Conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) claimed this week’s mass shooting at a parade in Illinois could have been a secret operation carried out by gun control advocates.

“Two shootings on July 4th, one in a rich, white neighborhood and the other at a fireworks display,” she said in a clip posted on Twitter by Patriot Takes, which monitors right-wing media. 

Greene was referring to the parade shooting in Highland Park, which left seven people dead, and likely an incident in Philadelphia that left two police officers wounded.

“It almost sounds like it’s designed to persuade Republicans to go along with more gun control,” she said. “I mean, after all, remember, we didn’t see that happen at all the Pride parades in the month of June.”

Then she attempted to appropriate not just the Fourth of July ― celebrated by all Americans ― but the entire month in the name of Donald Trump. 

“As soon as we hit MAGA month, as soon as we hit the month that we’re all celebrating, loving our country, we have shootings on July 4th,” said Greene. “I mean, that’s, you know, that would sound like a conspiracy theory, right? Of course. But what’s the definition of  right-wing conspiracy theory? Well, by the way, it’s the news that’s just six months early.” 

Greene pushed back at how her comments have been characterizing, posting a statement on Twitter from her press office insisting that “all the Congresswoman did was ask about the timing.” 

She also claimed on Twitter that this is “a fake news story” and that the full video also has her demanding “to know what drugs, SSRI’s, arrest record, what the police knew about the shooter and how upset I was that innocent people were murdered.”

In other clips posted online, Greene ― who has repeatedly espoused antisemitic talking points and earlier this year spoke at a white nationalist event ― pointed out that “white Christian nationalists” didn’t carry out mass murders at Pride parades:

Some on social media were quick to point out she’s recycling her conspiracy theories ― because she made a similar claim about the mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, the deadliest such act in the nation’s modern history.  

Greene has a long history of promoting wild conspiracy theories, including one in May in which she claimed the government was going to track and monitor what people eat and “zap” them if they eat real meat as a means of forcing people into eating “fake meat that grows in a peach tree dish.”