Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
If there is a speaker at CPAC who can thus far claim to have given the audience, both in attendance and watching at home, exactly what they expected, it’s Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The Georgia Republican congresswoman no doubt delighted her fans and mortified her detractors, but she certainly delivered a Friday speech that was in keeping with her reputation.
Greene, who recently dominated headlines by advocating for conservative and liberal states to orchestrate a “national divorce,” had a two-pronged focus in her CPAC speech – decidedly anti-Ukraine war and anti-gender reassignment stances.
The two topics shared no connection beyond being central to Greene’s speech and each exemplifying just how outspoken Greene is on the topics about which she is passionate.
At times looking directly into the camera, Greene spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who she accused of wanting to draw the U.S. into direct conflict with Russia.
“And while I will look at a camera and directly tell Zelensky, you’d better leave your hands off of our sons and daughters because they’re not dying over there,” Greene said.
In fairness to Zelensky, the Ukrainian president has proven far more desirous of America’s money than soldiers and, thus far, Republicans and Democrats (to say nothing of the American voter) have unilaterally opposed sending U.S. troops into Ukraine.
However, as reported by The Hill, Zelensky has recently defended his request for astronomical amounts of financial assistance from the United States on the grounds that Americans would be better served to fund a Ukraine war now rather than face a broader challenge from Russia later.
“If it happens so that Ukraine, due to various opinions and weakening [and] depleting of assistance, loses, Russia is going to enter Baltic states,” The Hill quoted Zelensky as saying. “NATO-member states — and then the U.S. will have to send their sons and daughters exactly the same way as we are sending their sons and daughters to war and they will have to fight because it’s NATO that we’re talking about and they will be dying — God forbid, because it’s a horrible thing.”
When she wasn’t criticizing Zelensky, Greene was advocating for what would stand as the most radically conservative stance on gender-transition surgeries and gender-affirming medical treatments for minors.
Greene had previously introduced a bill that would have codified a national ban, but the effort went nowhere in the previously Democrat-controlled House.
“It couldn’t pass last Congress because, like I said, Nancy Pelosi was the Speaker of the House, and she doesn’t believe in gender at all,” Greene said. “But we have a new Speaker in our Republican majority in the House of Representatives, and I’m going to be introducing my bill … that will make it a felony to perform anything to do with gender-affirming care.”
The Protect Children’s Innocence Act would curtail effectively all medical procedures and treatments associated with gender dysmorphia, inclusive of surgeries, hormone treatment, and puberty blockers.
“I don’t know about you, but when it comes to kids, I think the Republican Party has a duty,” Greene said. “We have a responsibility, and that is to be the party that protects children.”
As is customary when discussing bills proposed in either chamber of a split Congress, it’s important to note that whatever Greene proposes in the House might well succeed at that level, but it would be doomed to fail in the Senate and/or presidential levels.