QAnon-supporting politician mocked for blaming fires on ‘Jewish space lasers’
Social media posts by right-wing representative Marjorie Taylor Greene includes references 'Rothschild Inc' and whacky conspiracy theories about the cause of forest fires
Among the many posts being unearthed amid renewed scrutiny of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s social media history is one in which the new congresswoman implicated “Rothschild Inc” in connection with a deadly forest fire that, she wrote, was started using laser beams from space.
Greene, a new Republican from Georgia who made waves during the campaign for her promotion of the QAnon conspiracy theory, made the accusation in a 2018 Facebook post that is no longer visible. In the post, Greene offers a mix of evidence-free speculation as to what caused the 2018 Camp Fire, which burned more than 150,000 acres and killed 85 people.
In reality, the fire was determined to have been started by electrical wiring belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric.
In her post, Greene noted that Roger Kimmel, a board member at Pacific Gas and Electric, was also the vice-chairman of Rothschild Inc. Greene also wrote that PG&E had invested in technology to beam solar energy from space down to Earth. She claimed in the post that that technology had caused the fire. The post was first reported on Thursday by Media Matters for America, a liberal media watchdog.
GIVEAWAY! ???? We are giving away 5⃣ Jewish Space Lasers! To enter:
1) Follow us @JewishNewsUK
2) Follow @mtgreenee
3) Retweet this & tag a friend.#JewishSpaceLasers pic.twitter.com/XNj1f1mb9i— Jewish News (@JewishNewsUK) January 29, 2021
Suggesting that the Rothschild family is conspiring to cause damage for profit is a longstanding antisemitic conspiracy theory, and one that is baked into the QAnon mythology.
Greene wrote that “there are too many coincidences to ignore.”
Greene has expressed overt and more subtle antisemitic theories over time. In 2018 she shared a video, also on Facebook, that lambasted “Zionist supremacists” and advanced the “great replacement” theory, which falsely alleges that Jews are conspiring to undermine white-majority countries by bringing in non-white immigrants.
Like others who have amplified the QAnon theory, Greene frequently calls George Soros, a Hungarian-American Jewish billionaire and mega-donor, an enemy of the people.
A video from 2019 shows her following Parkland, Florida, shooting survivor David Hogg as he walks in Washington, D.C., and accusing him of being funded by Soros. Fred Guttenberg, the Jewish father and gun-control advocate whose daughter Jaime was killed at Parkland, first shared the video this week.
In recent days, Green has also come under scrutiny for suggesting in the past that the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, was a “false flag” event. She has also advanced a conspiracy theory about the Sept. 11 attacks.
Greene amplified some of these ideas in Facebook posts that she deleted this week, shortly after joining Congress. It is unclear whether the Camp Fire post was among the recently deleted posts, or whether she made it unavailable previously.
Multiple Democrats are seeking to expel Greene from Congress, citing her expression of conspiracy theories and past social media posts threatening violence against lawmakers. They include Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida who said, “Many members of Congress are afraid to be in the building with her.” But a two-thirds majority of Congress would need to approve for that to happen.
Republican leaders have appointed Greene to the House Education Committee.
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