Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was profiled on “60 Minutes” Sunday. This is the same white Christian nationalist bigot who stirred up a lynch mob against trans people last week and who actively spreads lies on social media and the House floor. Lesley Stahl gave her the
Vanity Fair treatment. You might’ve hoped for some epic takedown like when Stahl exposed Betsy DeVos as a dribbling idiot, but Greene isn’t whining about Soros-funded media lies. Instead, on Saturday, she said Stahl was “a trailblazer for women in journalism. And while we may disagree on some issues, I respect her greatly.”
Also, this was how “60 Minutes”
promoted the interview on social media:
Twitter
“Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, nicknamed MTG, isn’t afraid to share her opinions, no matter how intense and in-your-face they are. She sits down with Lesley Stahl this Sunday on 60 Minutes.”
Wow, Greene isn’t “afraid” to subject us to her “intense and in your face opinions”! This coup-plotting fascist isn’t Joan Rivers. She’s a sitting member of Congress and an ongoing threat to democracy. The Friday before the interview,
Greene tweeted an anti-semitic rant about how George Soros was deliberately creating national instability as part of some plot to rule the world.
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Marjorie Taylor Greene So Sad The People She Hates Don’t Like Her Very Much
Yet, “60 Minutes” describes Greene like an unwelcome new character on a long-running TV series:
“Marjorie Taylor Greene is the original congresswoman from hell! She’s a right-wing troll with attitude! She’s edgy! She’s in your face. You’ve heard the expression let’s get busy? Well, this is a bigot who gets biz-ay, consistently and thoroughly!”
I originally wasn’t going to watch this shit, but in the interests of journalism, I gave
myself the Ludovico treatment. Dear God, it was a mess. Stahl meekly confronted Greene, but she came across more disappointed than disgusted. Greene called Democrats a “party of pedophiles,” and Stahl responded, “Wow!” That’s so much better than a basic fact check or any sustained push back. She then wondered if Greene could at least try her gross character assassinations without all the “name-calling.”
When Greene dropped some right-wing talking points about the debt ceiling, Stahl said she was “glib” but didn’t mention that Greene took out a pandemic relief loan that was forgiven. Stahl later watched Greene pump iron (seriously). Stahl noted that Greene’s constituents from her “conservative, largely white, working-class district” adore her, but she didn’t speak to the significant minority that doesn’t or really any member of a marginalized group Greene actively attacks.
This interview failed to reveal Greene as a boob and a monster, as people might’ve hoped, because it’s not like she’s ever pretended she’s normal. This isn’t like the 1980s series “V,” where the TV journalist grabs the alien leader and rips off his human face mask, exposing him to the world as some horrible lizard man.
Greene is openly a lizard person, eating a live rat every day on her Twitter feed.
Greene lies on a dime and with a shameless disregard for the truth (much like her idol, Donald Trump). You can’t Palin her. Greene craves attention and power, and “60 Minutes” has uncritically provided her the former, which will only further enable her quest for the latter. You have to wonder how Maria Elvira Salazar feels, though you’d probably first ask, “Who the hell is that?”
Rep. House Rep Maria Elvira Salazar from Florida was elected in 2020, along with Greene and
the public urination obsessed Lauren Boebert. When MAGA Speaker puppet Kevin McCarthy was assuring everyone he’d keep the wacky new QAnon members under control, Salazar had grand plans for her first term. She and the other newly elected Republican members Congress were going to band together and form an anti-Squad called “the Force” (patent pending). New York Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said at the time, “We need to form our own ‘squad.’ We have a group of new Republicans who love America. We value freedom, liberty and opportunity.”
That didn’t really happen and Malliotakis eagerly joined the MAGA chorus after Trump’s indictment and tweeted boiler plate nonsense about a “weaponized justice system.” Salazar and Malliotakis obviously lack Greene’s “intensity,” which comes just short of foaming at the mouth. They’ve got “no attitude, they’re barely outrageous, and I don’t know what they’re in, but it’s not my face. Next!”
Stahl mentioned that Greene had moved on up from the “fringe” to the “front row,” without noting how that’s objectively terrifying.
She’s gained her national celebrity, some say notoriety, with a sharp tongue and some pretty radical views like her proposal for a national divorce where red and blue states would go their separate ways.
Those views aren’t just “pretty radical,” dude. What Greene actively promotes can only end in bloody, sectarian violence — an outright race war. Why does Stahl embrace her silly euphemism?
But, she has managed in just two years in Congress to accumulate real power, landing on important committees, and influencing the direction of Republican policies. Before Congress, she helped run the family construction company in Georgia — known to be smart and fearless and has a history of believing in conspiracy theories.
Sweet Christ.
It’s not as if “60 Minutes” is only capable of treating Greene like a movie star rehabbing their image after some recent legal troubles.
Attorney David Hammond noted somberly, “Ed Murrow established CBS as a world leader in news, famously confronted Joe McCarthy before a national audience with the shame of McCarthy’s lies. Today’s CBS takes one of McCarthy’s heirs, gives her a national platform to disseminate lies. We can draw appropriate conclusions.”
Edward R. Murrow’s gutting of Sen. Joseph McCarthy in a 1954 installment of “See It Now” ended with lines that apply equally as well to Marjorie Taylor Greene. It’s a shame that “60 Minutes” and Lesley Stahl didn’t bother to repeat them, but we’ll do so here:
The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it – and rather successfully. Cassius was right. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
We could use someone like Murrow right now. Today’s mainstream media are greeting modern fascism clothed entirely in white flags.
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