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Trump brings QAnon-linked congresswoman to rally stage to rail against abortion

Far-right congresswoman joins GOP lawmakers to reject results of 2020 presidential election

Alex Woodward
New York
Tuesday 05 January 2021 04:02 GMT
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(EPA)
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At his election eve rally in the state, Donald Trump introduced newly elected Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has expressed support for a range of conspiracy theories tied to far-right QAnon beliefs, as she railed against Democratic senate candidate Raphael Warnock.

She accused the candidate of "preaching murder of God’s creation in the womb” and pledged to reject Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election at a joint session of Congress to certify the results on 6 January, relying on debunked conspiracies and unsubstantiated claims of fraud and manipulation.

The congresswoman reportedly refused to wear a mask at her swearing-in ceremony on Sunday, as she entered Congress after repeatedly sparring with its members over the course of her campaign, including posing with a rifle next to images of progressive lawmakers, telling her supporters that she will “kick that b****" Nancy Pelosi “out of Congress”, and, calling a mask mandate at the Capitol an “oppressive violation" of her rights.

She later wore a “Trump Won” mask on the House floor.

The congresswoman is among dozens of GOP lawmakers who have refused to accept the results of the presidential election, undermining thousands of votes in her state. Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler, Rev Warnock’s challenger, has also joined the fray.

Read more: Follow live updates on the Georgia Senate runoff election

“This is why you have to turn out tomorrow," the congresswoman said from the rally stage in Dalton on Monday.

Two critical US Senate runoff elections in the state could determine the balance of power in Congress, if Democratic candidates Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeat their respective Republican challengers Loeffler and David Perdue.

The president and his far-right allies have painted Mr Warnock, a pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, as a “radical” Democratic caricature, while his GOP opponent – the wealthiest member of the Senate – has endorsed the president’s chaotic attempts to overturn millions of Americans’ votes.

“Radical Democrats are trying to capture Georgia senate seats” and release “unchecked, absolute power over every aspect of your lives,” the president said on Monday.

One of Senator Loeffler’s ad spots includes a shot of a room of schoolchildren reciting the pledge of allegiance. “This is America," a voice says. “But will it still be if the radical left controls the Senate?”

Other adverts have claimed he has preached “radical” left-wing ideas to his mostly Black congregation and juxtaposed images of looting and riots, recycling racist campaign tropes familiar to American voters.

At his rally in the state earlier on Monday, the Democratic president-elect said that the election of Rev Warnock and Mr Ossoff "can chart the course not just for the next four years but for the next generation."

"You have two senators who think they've sworn an oath to Donald Trump, not to the United States Constitution," he said. “I'm not asking your senators to be loyal to me. I believe they should be loyal to you, to Georgia, the United States Constitution, period.”

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