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MTG faces calls to resign after wild statement on Trump shooting: ‘Democrats are the party of pedophiles’

‘We are in a battle between GOOD and EVIL,’ Greene writes as she blames shooting on the Democrats

Gustaf Kilander
Washington, DC
Monday 15 July 2024 15:34 BST
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Related video: Trump leaves hospital after assassination attempt

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Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing calls to resign on social media after she quickly blamed Democrats for the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, saying Republicans are in a “battle” against the “party of pedophiles.”

Greene has been characteristically outspoken after a gunman identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on a Trump rally in rural Pennsylvania on Saturday evening, striking the president’s ear just minutes into his speech.

The Georgia Republican congresswoman baselessly alleged there’s a conspiracy afoot, insisting “Democrats wanted this to happen” and have “wanted Trump gone for years and they’re prepared to do anything to make that happen.”

After attacking Democrats for repeatedly calling Trump a threat to democracy, she soon blasted the party with more extreme rhetoric, calling the country’s polarized politics a “battle.”

“We are in a battle between GOOD and EVIL,” she wrote on X on Sunday.

“The Democrats are the party of pedophiles, murdering the innocent unborn, violence, and bloody, meaningless, endless wars.

Greene has been characteristically outspoken after a gunaman identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks open ed fire on a Trump rally.
Greene has been characteristically outspoken after a gunaman identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks open ed fire on a Trump rally. (AFP via Getty Images)

“They want to lock up their political opponents, and terrorize innocent Americans who would tell the truth about it.

“The Democrat party is flat out evil, and yesterday they tried to murder President Trump.”

Greene was slammed for her comments, with one X user writing: “Resign in disgrace. It was a Republican.”

“Donald Trump almost got shot dead by a Republican gun nut wielding an AR-15 — and this is how you respond? You’re truly beyond deplorable,” Omar Rivero, the co-founder of Occupy Democrats, told Greene.

“Your rhetoric is REPREHENSIBLE. Sit down,” X user Art Candee wrote, adding in another post that Greene “has been crying about Democrat’s rhetoric for almost a day. Then she posts this. Vile hypocrisy from that woman.”

“You’re a disgrace to the United States Congress. This is so pathetic. Resign,” Bryce Allers added.

According to federal campaign records, the rally gunman donated $15 to a progressive political action committee in 2021 but he subsequently registered as a Republican, Pennsylvania voter data show.

A former classmate of Crooks, Max Smith, told The Philadelphia Inquirer, “He definitely was conservative. It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate.”

Smith added that Crooks once took part in a debate where the teacher posed government policy questions and asked students to stand on one side or the other depending on their stance on the issue.

“The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” Smith told the paper. “That’s still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other.”

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