Marjorie Taylor Greene Laughs When Asked If She's Responsible For Protecting People

After the far-right lawmaker said COVID-19 only threatened seniors and the obese, she burst into laughter when a reporter pointed out deaths in other populations.
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) disturbed critics Tuesday when she burst into laughter during a reporter’s question about coronavirus deaths and her role in keeping constituents safe.

Greene held a press conference after she was suspended from Twitter for 12 hours for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. In tweets on Sunday and Monday, she falsely claimed that COVID-19 is not dangerous for people unless they’re obese or over age 65 and said vaccines shouldn’t be required.

Many people under age 65 have become severely ill or died from the disease. Currently, 99% of COVID-19 deaths are among the unvaccinated.

“Do you feel any responsibility for keeping people in Georgia safe?” a reporter asked during the press conference. “There are children, skinny people, who have died of the coronavirus. Do you feel any responsibility?”

Greene laughed.

“Tia, you crack me up,” she said. “You know what, I think people’s responsibility is their own. To read the information ― and it’s everywhere. You can’t go by any street corner practically and not see something about COVID-19. I believe in people’s own individual responsibility to read, to find out and to make their own decision.”

The reporter later identified herself online as Tia Mitchell, Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A Washington Post reporter then asked the lawmaker if she believed in science.

“I believe in God. And of course, there is science,” Greene answered. “I don’t worship science or think that science rules everything. I believe that God rules everything.”

Mitchell said she asked her question after listening to Greene downplay the impact of COVID-19 on young people and those who aren’t obese.

Greene has persistently spread dangerous and demonstrably false theories about vaccines and COVID-19, even as the delta variant surges around the country and causes a new uptick in cases.

The lawmaker was widely criticized online for her inappropriate laughter during a question about the lives and safety of her constituents.

“Dead Americans? Cracks up laughing. The face of the Republican Party,” political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen tweeted.

Health care advocate Peter Morley said Greene was a “DISGRACE!”

“Rep. Greene laughs re: “skinny people” dying of #COVID19 Followed by, “You crack me up,” he tweeted. “MILLIONS have died globally from this pandemic. No one is laughing.”

Greene did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article attributed a question on belief in science to Mitchell. The question was asked by another reporter.

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