Who controls these laser beams? Illustration by iStock

(JTA) — Among the many posts being unearthed amid renewed scrutiny of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s social media history is one in which the new congresswoman implicated “Rothschild Inc” in connection with a deadly forest fire that, she wrote, was started using laser beams from space.

Greene, a freshman Republican from Georgia who made waves during the campaign for her promotion of the QAnon conspiracy theory, made the accusation in a 2018 Facebook post that is no longer visible. In the post, Greene offers a mix of evidence-free speculation as to what caused the 2018 Camp Fire, which burned more than 150,000 acres and killed 85 people.

In reality, the fire was determined to have been started by electrical wiring belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

In her post, Greene noted that Roger Kimmel, a board member at Pacific Gas and Electric, was also the vice-chairman of Rothschild Inc. Greene also wrote that PG&E had invested in technology to beam solar energy from space down to Earth. She claimed in the post that that technology had caused the fire. The post was first reported on Thursday by Media Matters for America, a liberal media watchdog.

Suggesting that the Rothschild family is conspiring to cause damage for profit is a longstanding anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, and one that is baked into the QAnon mythology.

Greene wrote that “there are too many coincidences to ignore.”

Georgia Republican House candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene endorses Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) during a press conference on October 15, 2020 in Dallas, Georgia. Greene has been the subject of some controversy recently due to her support for the right-wing conspiracy group QAnon. Image by Dustin Chambers/Getty Images

Greene has expressed overt and more subtle anti-Semitic theories over time. In 2018 she shared a video, also on Facebook, that lambasted “Zionist supremacists” and advanced the “great replacement” theory, which falsely alleges that Jews are conspiring to undermine white-majority countries by bringing in non-white immigrants.

Like others who have amplified the QAnon theory, Greene frequently calls George Soros, a Hungarian-American Jewish billionaire and mega-donor, an enemy of the people.

A video from 2019 shows her following Parkland, Florida, shooting survivor David Hogg as he walks in Washington, D.C., and accusing him of being funded by Soros. Fred Guttenberg, the Jewish father and gun-control advocate whose daughter Jaime was killed at Parkland, first shared the video this week.

.@mtgreenee, is this you harassing @davidhogg111 weeks after the Parkland shooting, that my daughter was killed in & he was in? Calling him a coward for ignoring your insanity. I will answer all of your questions in person. Get ready to record again.pic.twitter.com/aQjL74x7kh

— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) January 27, 2021

In recent days, Green has also come under scrutiny for suggesting in the past that the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, was a “false flag” event. She has also advanced a conspiracy theory about the Sept. 11 attacks.

Greene amplified some of these ideas in Facebook posts that she deleted this week, shortly after joining Congress. It is unclear whether the Camp Fire post was among the recently deleted posts, or whether she made it unavailable previously.

Multiple Democrats are seeking to expel Greene from Congress, citing her expression of conspiracy theories and past social media posts threatening violence against lawmakers. They include Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida who said, “Many members of Congress are afraid to be in the building with her.” But a two-thirds majority of Congress would need to approve for that to happen.

Republican leaders have appointed Greene to the House Education Committee.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount