Far-right candidate for congress Marjorie Taylor Greene came under fire for posting a video to her Facebook page where she held an AR-15 alongside photos of liberal congresswomen Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib.
The accompanying text, which remains live on Greene’s Facebook page, urged supporters to “go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart.” Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib and fellow congresswoman Ayanna Presley are all young liberal women who were elected to Congress in 2018 and are frequently referred to as “The Squad.”
“Hate America leftists want to take this country down ... Politicians have failed this country. I’m tired of seeing weak, Establishment Republicans play defense,” Greene’s post read. “Our country is on the line. America needs fighters who speak the truth.
“We need strong conservative Christians to go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart. Americans must take our country back,” the post continued.
By midday Friday, Facebook had deleted the photo for a violation of the site’s policies of not inciting violence.
“Thanks for raising this. We've removed this image as it violates our policies,” Facebook Policy Communications Director Andy Stone tweeted in response to one user’s question about the photo.
Greene, a QAnon conspiracy theorist and vocal supporter of President Trump, won Georgia's 14th congressional district GOP primary in June. The businesswoman has largely built her campaign on Islamophobia, xenophobia, and racism.
Greene came under fire for posting photos with well-known former Ku Klux Klan leader Chester Doles, who has also voiced support for her campaign.
"Our friend Marjorie Greene is running for Congress. She's part of the Q movement. Good friend to have,” Doles wrote on social media in March, according to Business Insider.
Several lawmakers have condemned Greene’s photo of the “Squad,” including Rep. Ilhan Omar herself.
“Posting a photo with an assault rifle next to the faces of three women of color is not advertising. It’s incitement,” Omar wrote on Twitter. “There are already death threats in response to this post. Facebook should remove this violent provocation.”
Greene responded directly to Omar’s tweet.
“Relax @IlhanMN, it’s just a meme,” she tweeted in part. “What isn’t a meme is BLM / ANTIFA violence, rioting, and destruction that occurred on Minneapolis streets. While your city was being burned and innocent people of color like David Dorn were killed, you called BLM / ANTIFA peaceful protesters.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib also called for the image to be removed from Facebook, while also calling into question the GOP’s lack of response to the image.
“Is there any doubt that if the roles were reversed, the @GOP would be calling for my resignation and @Facebook would have already removed the post?” she wrote in a tweet.
Still, Greene and her campaign maintain she did not mean to threaten violence against the congresswomen.
"Those who say that are paranoid and ridiculous. Fake news is always looking for the next conspiracy theory. This question is idiotic. Go back to bed,” Greene told Buzzfeed News when asked if her post should be taken as a threat.
Spectrum News has reached out to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s campaign for comment.