Republican US House of Representatives legislator Marjorie Taylor Greene has been fending off ridicule for a Facebook post alluding to a wide-ranging, purportedly anti-Semitic-tinged conspiracy theory which unleashed the #JewishSpaceLasers hashtag on Twitter.
In the since-deleted, 2018-dated post, revealed by Media Matters on Thursday, Greene, known for promoting QAnon conspiracy theories, reportedly made several unsubstantiated claims about the cause of California's wildfires.
In November 2018, California was hit with the worst wildfire in the state’s history, which, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, destroyed “a total of 153,336 acres, resulting in 85 civilian fatalities and several firefighter injuries”.
At the time, future Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) purported that the fire, ‘conveniently targeting’ the route of the planned California High-Speed Rail project, had been started deliberately, using a laser from space, or accidentally, by a solar power-generating satellite.
Conspiracy theorists have pushed the explanation that the ravaging Camp Fire, that started on 8 November 2018, was unleashed for financial profit or to clear space for California’s high-speed rail system.
In the post, Greene wrote that “there are too many coincidences to ignore” regarding the fire, adding that then-California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) was pushing for the construction of the rail project and “oddly there are all these people who have said they saw what looked like lasers or blue beams of light causing the fires.”
Furthermore, the Republican speculated that the Rothschilds, a wealthy Jewish banking family frequently referred to in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, PG&E (Pacific Gas and Electric), space solar power company Solaren, and California officials, such as PG&E board member Roger Kimmel, US Senator for California Dianne Feinstein, her husband Richard Blum, former California governor Jerry Brown, and Solaren board member Michael Peevey were all implicated.
“If they are beaming the sun's energy back to Earth, I’m sure they wouldn’t ever miss a transmitter receiving station right??!! I mean mistakes are never made when anything new is invented. What would that look like anyway? A laser beam or light beam coming down to Earth I guess. Could that cause a fire? Hmmm, I don’t know. I hope not! That wouldn’t look so good for PG&E, Rothschild Inc, Solaren or Jerry Brown who sure does seem fond of PG&E,” the Facebook post reportedly read.
As the post by Marjorie Taylor Greene was resurrected, "Jewish Laser Beam" began trending on Twitter, with users slamming the Republican politician’s comments.
Some comments suggested that Greene ‘might be on to something’.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is known as the first person to be elected to federal office who openly adheres to the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose proponents believe that during his presidency, Donald Trump was waging a war against a "Deep State" made up of global Satan-worshipping elites who manipulate a worldwide child sex trafficking ring.