Republican Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing criticism for her Facebook post in 2018 wherein she claimed a horrific California wildfire was started by a laser from space.
The wildfire began on November 8, 2018, and has been described as ‘the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history’, destroying a total of 153,336 acres and killing 85 people.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection determined that the cause of the wildfire was ‘by electrical transmission lines owned and operated by Pacific Gas and Electricity (PG&E) located in the Pulga area’, however, scientists have noted that climate change has contributed to increasing and more devastating fires in places like California.point 601 |
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Two years before she was elected to Congress and less than 10 days after the fire began, Rep. Greene took to Facebook to suggest the fire was caused by a beam from ‘space solar generators.’
The post is no longer available, but a screenshot obtained by Media Matters sees the Republican claim there are ‘too many coincidences to ignore’ regarding the fire.
Greene says that the fire had been orchestrated by California politicians such as then-California Gov. Jerry Brown and wealthy Jewish bankers in order to clear a path for a high-speed railway.
“…oddly there are all these people who have said they saw what looked like lasers or blue beams of light causing the fires,” Greene wrote.point 390 |
“If they are beaming the sun’s energy back to Earth, I’m sure they wouldn’t ever miss a transmitter receiving station right??!! I mean mistakes are never made when anything new is invented.point 170 | What would that look like anyway? A laser beam or light beam coming down to Earth I guess”.point 246 |
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“Could that cause a fire? Hmmm, I don’t know. I hope not! That wouldn’t look so good for PG&E, Rothschild Inc, Solaren or Jerry Brown who sure does seem fond of PG&E.”
According to the Business Insider, the reference to ‘Rothschild’ relates to anti-Semitic conspiracies back to the 19th century which centers on the European Jewish Rothschild family.
The Rothschilds gathered some of the largest fortunes at the time and created a banking dynasty, which modern conspiracy theories falsely refer to as a lever of world domination.
The post echoes multiple QAnon theories that came about in the wake of the wildfire and are not the first instance of Greene pushing wild conspiracy theories.
The Republican has also made claims about 9/11, the Parkland and Sandy Hook school shootings, and the Las Vegas shooting, Media Matters reported.
Greene also has a history of pushing anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic remarks.
The backlash of Greene’s Facebook post comes after CNN exposed that she had ‘repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before being elected to Congress.’ She has since deleted her old Facebook posts pushing conspiracy theories.