'Pedophiles' slander is being pursued by a US congresswoman

Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has defended her labeling of Democrats as a “party of pedophiles”, refusing to disavow the statement when 60 Minutes host Lesley Stahl suggested it was “over-the-top”. Greene countered that Democrats “support grooming children,” even singling out President Joe Biden for supporting “transgender surgeries” on kids. Greene vowed last month to reintroduce legislation to ban the provision of ‘gender-affirming care’ to children, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and certain surgeries. The ‘Protect Children’s Innocence Act’, defeated last year under a Democrat-controlled House, would impose strict prison sentences and fines for medical professionals who treat children in violation of the act and would also forbid the use of federal funds for gender-affirming healthcare of any kind. Greene was elected to Congress in 2020 with the help of an endorsement from then-President Donald Trump.

She was pressured to disavow social media posts expressing support for QAnon, a conspiracy theory which claims that high-ranking Democrats and some Republicans are actually part of a cabal of devil-worshiping pedophiles. Democrats renewed their efforts to run Greene out of Washington following the January 6 riot, when she expressed support for the protesters who overran the Capitol in the hope of preventing Biden from becoming president. She was subsequently stripped of her committee assignments and Twitter and Facebook later banned her from their platforms. However, some political opponents thought this censure was not enough, calling for her to be barred from running for re-election to Congress during the 2022 midterms under the 14th Amendment.