Fact check: Marjorie Taylor Greene caught in bizarre lie
When Derek Chauvin was convicted yesterday, much of the nation breathed a collective sigh of relief. But certain right wing politicians and pundits tried to spin up a phony scandal around the verdict.
For instance, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted this: “DC is completely dead tonight. People stayed in and were scared to go out because of fear of riots. Police are everywhere and have riot gear. #BLM is the strongest terrorist threat in our county.”
The thing is, this wasn’t the case at all. Kurt Bardella, who writes for USA Today and the LA Times, confirmed as much first hand:
This is a lie. I ate dinner in downtown dc tonight at an outside dining area. https://t.co/mN8aIFG6UG
— Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) April 21, 2021
Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News was also able to confirm first hand that Greene was making this up:
Complete nonsense. I live in dc and it was totally normal last night. People out walking around, others eating dinner outside. Not sure what she’s talking about. https://t.co/i4JPWv7yDQ
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) April 21, 2021
This was a particularly bizarre thing for Marjorie Taylor Greene to lie about, given how easily it could be fact checked. Then again, right wing politicians and pundits have a consistent habit of spinning surreal lies about terrible things that are supposedly going on in major cities, in the hope that rural Americans won’t know the difference. In any case, we rate Greene’s tweet as (obviously) false.
