A New York Times profile of MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene published on Monday ignores her longtime support of antisemitic conspiracy theories and bigoted policies in favor of a sympathetic portrait of her current standing within the Republican Party.
The story by Robert Draper goes “Inside Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Break With Trump” and swallows wholesale her narrative that she was “naïve” about President Donald Trump. Greene recently announced that she would be resigning her seat and leaving Congress, purportedly shunning Trump for fighting the release of the Epstein files and not being true to right-wing MAGA ideals.
Draper’s report bills Greene as a “conscientious objector” and argues that her break with Trump is due to her principles, rather than opportunism.
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The story makes a brief, perfunctory mention of Greene’s history of backing absurd conspiracies but glosses over their central role in her political identity. But the thrice-elected Georgia congresswoman attained her position of power and influence precisely because of that extremism.
She rose to prominence within the Republican Party and the affiliated MAGA movement because she backed absurd conspiracies like the notion that Jewish people used a laser beam from space to cause wildfires in California. Greene was a backer of the unhinged QAnon conspiracy theory, which accused Democrats of literally abducting and consuming children, and she appeared on programs promoting this conspiracy long after being elected to Congress in 2020.
Greene even called for the execution of Democratic officials in the years before she came to Capitol Hill.
She also has a longstanding friendship with notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and shares his belief that the 2020 election was stolen by Democrats.
When she hasn’t been promoting conspiracies, Greene has been a tireless supporter of extremist gun culture and is currently pushing legislation meant to ban gender affirming care for transgender Americans.
Greene also found time to use her role as a member of Congress to headline a conference of white supremacists in 2022.
New York Times reporter Draper conducted a series of interviews with Greene over several years and the end product is a story that sympathetically furthers her narrative of a betrayed conservative, minimizing her own toxic legacy and rhetoric.
The Times story serves as a major linchpin in Greene’s ongoing media tour—she’s also appeared on CNN and “The View”—as she seeks redemption from the very same media she called “fake news” for years on end. Greene has been perfectly fine with inciting violence against vulnerable communities and progressive leaders, but now seeks sympathy when her own family receives threats from MAGA-affiliated voices.
And the Times is there to help.
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This isn’t a first for the storied institution known as The Gray Lady. Back in 2016, the Times published a piece titled “Glenn Beck Is Sorry About All That,” after the right-wing radio/TV host claimed that he had seen the light after decades of pushing division, racism, and falsehoods. Not long after the Times boosted his public relations campaign, Beck reverted to form and has spent the following near-decade once again rehashing the lies and conspiracies he always has.
The Times, who declared in June that it is “the age of Trump,” has a history of playing a key role in advancing conservative spin—and with its whitewash of Greene, the paper is back to its old tricks.
