Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was fact-checked by the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol after she claimed brokers had discovered an “explosive” close to the southern border in January.
Greene highlighted her claim about this so-called risk in a query to Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz throughout a Wednesday Homeland Safety Committee listening to in Texas. Nevertheless, Ortiz didn’t make clear the matter when talking to lawmakers. Afterward, Greene repeated her declare via a tweet, together with an image of the alleged system, accusing “the Cartel” of “planting bombs” and “murdering Individuals on a regular basis via medication and crime.”
Fox Information nationwide correspondent Invoice Melugin shared the tweet, including that he had spoken to a “high-level CBP supply” that mentioned the article was a faux. “Whereas it appeared nefarious, I’m instructed it didn’t comprise any explosives,” he tweeted.
Shortly afterward, Ortiz chimed in with a tweet.
“At present, I testified earlier than the Committee on Homeland Safety & it was alleged that Brokers discovered an explosive system close to the border,” he wrote, sharing the identical picture Greene posted. “Throughout a Jan. briefing, management was notified that Brokers discovered a duct-taped ball crammed with sand that wasn’t deemed a risk to brokers/public.”
Greene refused to back down, insisting that unnamed Border Patrol brokers had instructed her in any other case.
“I’m simply explaining what I used to be instructed immediately,” she mentioned.
When reached by HuffPost for remark, Greene’s spokesperson didn’t make clear Greene’s sources or present proof, as an alternative writing: “Cease being a state-sponsored propagandist.”
Greene, an anti-immigration hardliner, has hammered the Biden administration over undocumented U.S. border crossings from Mexico, typically utilizing incorrect figures. Final month, she confronted ridicule after she accused the federal government of permitting “6 billion” individuals illegally cross into the U.S. (She later up to date the determine to six million ― which is still dubious.)
Weeks in the past, she used the deaths of two brothers who died from fentanyl poisoning to assault the Biden administration for its “refusal to safe our border and cease the Cartel’s [sic] from murdering Individuals on a regular basis.” When a fact-checker pointed out that these males died in 2020, when Donald Trump, not Biden, was president, Greene’s spokesperson instructed him that a lot of individuals had died from medication below Biden and “do you suppose they offer a fuck about your bullshit truth checking?’”
Greene has additionally leaned into the controversial white supremacist “invasion” and
“replacement” language in her pushes for border safety. On Wednesday, she tweeted a graph about unlawful migrant encounters, writing: “We don’t know who or what’s coming throughout our Southern border. However we do know that we’re being systematically and deliberately changed by Joe Biden and the Democrats’ open border insurance policies.”
