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A Republican Congresswoman and known conspiracy theorist suggested a laser beam from outer space was responsible for California’s deadliest bushfire season – the latest wild theory unearthed in a trove of old Facebook posts.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the first QAnon backer to become a US representative, made the remarks in a 2018 post uncovered by left-leaning watchdog Media Matters on Thursday.
More than 7500 fires burned an area of more than 1.67 million acres in California that year and 100 people died, including 85 in the Camp Fire.
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In the Facebook post, made two years prior to her election to Congress in November 2020, Ms Greene said there were “too many coincidences to ignore”.
“Oddly there are all these people who have said they saw what looked like lasers or blue beams of light causing the fires, and pictures and videos,” she said.
Ms Greene suggested energy beamed back to earth from satellite solar panels, bought by utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric in partnership with Solaren, may have missed a “transmitter receiving station”.
“But what do I know? I just like to read a lot,” she said in the post.
Investigators have blamed the Camp Fire on power lines owned and operated by PG&E.
The 46-year-old freshman Representative from Georgia has questioned the September 11 terrorist attacks and called the 2018 school shooting in Parkland a “false flag”.
Video surfaced this week of the fierce gun rights advocate confronting survivor David Hogg and calling him a “coward”.
She has refused to be screened at the House chamber, prompting Speaker Nancy Pelosi to warn that there is an “enemy” within Congress.
Ms Pelosi did not name Ms Greene but said “we have members of Congress who want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence on other members”.
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Ms Greene also repeatedly indicated support to executing prominent Democrats in 2018 and 2019, according to a CNN review of the Facebook posts.
In one post in January 2019, she liked a comment that said “a bullet to the head” would quickly remove Ms Pelosi from power.
In response to a CNN story, which she claimed was a “hit piece”, Ms Greene tweeted: “Many posts have been liked. Most posts have been shared. Some did not represent my views.”
At a town-hall meeting on Wednesday, Ms Greene was asked by WRCB reporter Meredith Aldis about calls for her expulsion from Congress, following the Facebook post revelations.
“I’m talking to my constituents,” the Congresswoman said.
Ms Aldis was told she had “caused a disturbance” and a sheriff’s deputy threatened the reporter and her crew for trespassing if they stayed at the event, which they had been invited to attend.
Only a few Republicans have openly criticised Ms Greene. One of them is congressman Adam Kinzinger, who on Wednesday said she has “nothing in common with our core values.”
With criticism mounting, House Democrat Jimmy Gomez said on Thursday he is introducing a resolution to expel Ms Greene because she poses “a danger … to every member of Congress”.
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