Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said in an interview Wednesday that she has racked up nearly $90,000 in fines for refusing to wear a mask in Congress.
In an interview with Newsmax, Greene reportedly said she does not wear a mask on the House floor to reflect the constituents she represents. In the interview, she added that “masks don’t work” and that vaccinated people continue to catch COVID-19.
“I think it’s obvious that the high amount of cases and how covid has continued in various shut down areas that masking doesn’t work. There’s studies that show that, as well as vaccinated people continuing to catch covid. That’s greatly concerning to me. I’m a big believer in life-saving treatments, and I would love to see that to be the track that we pursue instead of mandating masks and vaccines,” Greene said.
“I’m very much against masks, especially for children. I think that it’s awful to mask children when they virtually have no threat from covid. Kids need to be free to speak, smile, and learn. The best way they can do that is without a mask on their face,” Greene added.
“I take the fines on the House floor. I’m up to almost $90,000 in fines on the House floor because I believe as a representative, in order to represent the people, I have to be willing to do it myself,” Greene explained. “So, that's why I don't wear a mask. I'm just trying to fight the fight for the people who are against it.”
Greene then said that the money goes to “Nancy Pelosi’s collection agency” since she is the current speaker of the House.
This week, as Landon covered, Greene was permanently suspended from Twitter over perpetuating COVID-19 “misinformation.”
In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson wrote “we permanently suspended the account you referenced (@mtgreenee) for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy."
As Landon mentioned, Greene posted a thread on Saturday claiming that there are “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths.”
Shortly after, Greene published a statement on Telegram claiming that Twitter is “an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth.” Previously, Greene had been temporarily suspended from Twitter for violating the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy.
Greene’s ban from Twitter comes almost one year after the platform permanently banned former President Donald Trump from the platform “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.