Conspiracist Marjorie Taylor Greene's actually on the Homeland Security Committee now

If you thought that the marathon vote to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House would be the only ridiculous thing to emerge out of the US Congress this month, then you’d be wrong, as Republican and far-right conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene has just been put forward for the Homeland Security Committee.

Yes, really.

Ms Greene, who represents Georgia, has previously expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, which claims former president Donald Trump is at war with Satan-worshipping paedophiles at the heart of America’s elite.

She’s also spread some troubling lies about coronavirus in hospital waiting rooms, expressed she doesn’t believe in evolution, and – on the traumatic events of 9/11 – claimed a “so-called plane” crashed into the Pentagon.

Except there’s nothing “so-called” about it. Four planes were hijacked by terrorists on 11 September 2001 – two hitting and destroying the World Trade Center in New York, one hit the Pentagon (the headquarters of the US military) and another crashed in a field in Pennsylvania following a fight against the hijackers by passengers.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, 9/11 survivor Sharon Premoli condemned Ms Greene’s appointment to the House Committee and said: “Ms Greene. A 9/11 denialist, knows nothing about 9/11 because she doesn’t believe in legitimate investigative journalism or books, believing only the most outrageous conspiracy theories that deny the horror of what happened to 3,000 souls and to the injured survivors on 9/11.”

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Ms Greene was on House committees before, but back in February 2021 she was stripped of these assignments as a result of her support for QAnon – a theory declared a domestic terrorism threat by the FBI in 2019.

That same year, she backpedalled on her remarks on 9/11, saying it “absolutely happened”.

Earlier this month, when quizzed on her past backing of QAnon by Fox News, she explained she had “gotten sucked into some things I’d seen on the internet”.

Now, though, people are “horrified” at Ms Greene being back on a House committee – the one on homeland security, no less.

Democratic congressman Ritchie Torres, a former vice chair on that committee, tweeted: “I’m HORRIFIED that it was just announced that Marjorie Taylor Greene will serve on the committee. A QAnon conspiracy theorist and Jan 6 insurrectionist doesn’t belong on a committee that exists to fight extremism.”

Jonathan Allen, who works on government relations at the anti-hate charity the Anti-Defamation League, responded to Speaker Kevin McCarthy describing Ms Greene’s appointment as “great” by commenting: “Welcoming Marjorie Taylor Greene into the mainstream is anything but great – it’s incredibly dangerous. [She] has spread antisemitic, anti-democratic, Islamophobic, and QAnon conspiracy theories.”

The pro-democracy and anti-Trump campaign group The Lincoln Project, meanwhile, simply asked its followers: “Do you feel secure?”

As if this wasn’t ironic enough, embattled congressman George Santos – who admitted to making a string of lies about his background and resume during his election campaign – has been placed on the House Committee on Small Business.

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