“Snowflake” Marjorie Taylor Greene defends demand for national divorce: “We want our own safe space”

Critics quickly mocked Greene's comment as "beyond parody"

By Igor Derysh

Managing Editor

Published March 1, 2023 9:06AM (EST)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) gives a thumbs down during President Joe Biden's State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on February 07, 2023 in Washington, DC.  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) gives a thumbs down during President Joe Biden's State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on February 07, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on Tuesday defended her call for a "national divorce" by arguing that conservatives need their own "safe space."

Greene last week drew backlash from both Democrats and Republicans after calling to separate the country "by red states and blue states" and suggesting the Democrats that want to move to red states should be banned from voting for five years.

Greene during an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity insisted that she was not calling for secession, complaining about critics who accused her of trying to incite a "civil war." Greene claimed that she merely wants to reduce the size of the federal government and give more power to the states "to be the identity they want to be."

Greene on Monday claimed that she was "attacked" by a woman and her adult son in a restaurant. The man "started yelling 'F you' as loud as he possibly could over and over," Greene told Hannity on Tuesday.

"The division in our country has gotten to a dangerous point — to the point that I experience it on a daily basis," Greene said. "Being attacked in public is no fun… We're fed up. We're fed up with Democrat policies. We're fed up with the woke ideology being shoved down our throat and we're tired of our children being brainwashed into these same ideas.

"We want our own safe space," Greene added. "And we deserve it."

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., mocked Greene's call for a "safe space."

"Republicans ridiculed 'safe spaces' and called people 'snowflakes' this coming from one of their leaders is literally hilarious," Omar tweeted.

"Sounds like a snowflake to me," tweeted comedian Jason Selvig.

"Beyond parody," wrote podcast host Brian Tyler Cohen.

Greene during the interview claimed that her restaurant incident was the result of Republicans being treated like "second-class citizens," blaming rhetoric from the likes of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.

"There is no line the [Democrats] will not cross," she said. "It is disrespectful, they are insane, they are crazy and it needs to stop right now."


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Greene's critics countered that the congresswoman has engaged in similar behavior, citing her harassment of Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg before her congressional stint. Greene in 2018 followed Hogg as he walked to the Capitol building, demanding his stance on gun rights.

"He's a coward," Greene says in the video. "He can't say one word because he can't defend his stance."

"I was attacked and screamed at in 2018 by an insane woman named Marjorie Taylor Greene," Hogg tweeted on Tuesday. "She had no respect for the privacy of me as an 18 year old school shooting survivor or my staff. She was self righteous, insane, and completely out of control."

Other critics also cited Greene's antics at the State of the Union, when she heckled President Joe Biden and called him a "liar."

Biden himself called out Greene over the incident on Tuesday, before jokingly making a sign of the cross.

"I'm gonna be good," Biden said, suggesting he was resisting the urge to say more.


By Igor Derysh

Igor Derysh is Salon's managing editor. His work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald and Baltimore Sun.

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