By Ben Nadler
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories in a series of online videos, has won a U.S. House seat representing northwest Georgia.
Her candidacy was bolstered by President Donald Trump, who has called her a “future Republican Star.”
Greene was heavily favored in the conservative district even before Democratic challenger Kevin Van Ausdal suddenly dropped out in September, saying he was moving out of state.
Greene thanked her staff and asked supporters to pray for President Donald Trump to win reelection at a watch party Tuesday night, video of which was livestreamed on Facebook.
In her remarks, Greene pledged to “fight hard to make sure that Nancy Pelosi and the squad and the radical Democrats in the House do not steal anything away from America, because this country was never ever meant to be a socialist nation.”
Greene is a businesswoman and political newcomer who’s gained large followings on social media in part by posting incendiary videos and comments.
Greene has claimed in online videos that Black and Hispanic men are being held back by “gangs and dealing drugs,” alleged an “Islamic invasion” of government offices and accused Jewish billionaire George Soros of collaborating with Nazis.
She has also embraced QAnon, a far-right U.S. conspiracy theory centered around the debunked belief that Trump is fighting a secret campaign against “deep-state” enemies and a child sex trafficking ring of satanic pedophiles and cannibals.
In more recent videos and posts, she has attacked everything from the Black Lives Matter movement to the use of facemasks to protect against the coronavirus.
After some of her comments came to light, Greene was condemned by some future House colleagues within her own party, but many other Republicans including Trump and Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler have embraced her.
She had a blunt message for her detractors in a speech after winning a GOP primary runoff in August: “I will not apologize.”
“Congratulations to future Republican Star Marjorie Taylor Greene on a big Congressional primary win in Georgia against a very tough and smart opponent,” Trump tweeted after her primary win. “Marjorie is strong on everything and never gives up - a real WINNER!”
Greene initially started campaigning for a different House seat, challenging Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, made up of suburbs north of Atlanta. She switched to the more conservative 14th District after Republican Rep. Tom Graves announced that he wasn’t seeking reelection.
Democrats weren’t able to replace Van Ausdal on the ballot because he dropped out too close to the election, leaving Greene essentially unopposed in the race.
The seat has been open since Graves stepped down in October.
A public petition for the British government not to go through with Brexit gained so many signatures that the Parliament website crashed on Thursday.
There's a phenomenon on the internet called the "Streisand Effect," whereby a person's attempt to suppress information ends up widely publicizing that very same information. It was named after a situation an incident when Barbra Streisand tried to keep images of her Malibu mansion off the web and inadvertently drew massive amounts of attention to it. And it's why Devin Nunes' mom was trending on Twitter Tuesday morning.
The Democratic National Committee stands by its decision not to allow Fox News to host a Democratic primary debate in the 2020 presidential election, a party official told Cheddar on Thursday. "Our role at the DNC is to make sure we have a fair process and we do not believe Fox News can have a fair debate,” the DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa said.
In a presidential field that's growing more crowded by the day, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is looking to stand out by making foreign policy central to her campaign while her fellow Democratic candidates tussle over progressive moonshots like the Green New Deal or Medicare for All. At a campaign event in Concord, N.H., during the Presidents Day weekend, Cheddar's J.D. Durkin spoke with Gabbard, who said her agenda is based on her belief that the U.S. is "addicted" to regime-change wars.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019.
While New York City is mired in finger-pointing over the loss of Amazon's HQ2, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey urges the company to reconsider the bid that Newark made.
According to House Ways and Means Committee Member Judy Chu, the GOP "made false claims" about the tax bill that passed in December of 2017 and is taking effect this tax season. "They said things like the American public would get on the average a $4,000 per person increase. Well, that is certainly not the case," Chu, a California Democrat, told Cheddar.
Bradley Tusk, the founder and CEO of Tusk Strategies and former campaign manager of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, knows exactly why Amazon's HQ2 plans in New York City fell apart. "It's not that we didn't get it because of some geopolitical economic trend or something out of our control. We didn't get it because our own politicians and Amazon themselves were too incompetent and too arrogant and too tone deaf to get it right," Tusk told Cheddar.
Amazon's blog post announcing it will pull the plug on its New York City headquarters is nothing but a bluff to bring politicians back to the negotiating table, said D.A. Davidson Analyst Tom Forte. "Absolutely Amazon's bluffing," Forte told Cheddar Friday.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
