Politics

Marjorie Taylor Greene delivers grotesquely hateful House speech attacking Rachel Levine

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Photo: Screenshot

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced an amendment to reduce another LGBTQ+ Biden administration official’s salary to $1, and she used her speech on the House floor to spread conspiracy theories and make transphobic jokes.

Greene introduced an amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2024 to reduce Assistant Secretary of Health Admiral Rachel Levine’s salary to $1 by saying that she wants to “castrate” Levine’s pay while standing next to a sign that read, “There are TWO genders: MALE & FEMALE ‘Trust The Science!'”

She referred to Levine by her deadname and used he/him pronouns to refer to Levine.

“My amendment uses the Holman Rule to reduce- no, castrate the salary of Assistant Secretary of Health [deadname] Levine to $1,” Greene said, “the same way he supports castrating children who suffer from gender dysphoria!”

Greene called Levine a “diversity hire” despite her vast experience as a pediatrician and professor of medicine, and as the Pennsylvania physician general. Greene said that she was appointed by President Joe Biden “to push the demonic gender-affirming care agenda.”

Greene then said that Levine ordered nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients during the height of the pandemic, a claim that has already been rated “false” by Newsweek and was started because Levine was physician general in Pennsylvania when the state’s health department issued guidance to nursing homes saying that they could accept patients who were discharged from the hospital after having had COVID.

“Dr. Levine has spent his career treating- let’s say grooming children, adolescents, and young adults,” Greene said, providing no evidence that Levine sexually assaulted anyone. She then said that Levine is “masquerading as a woman” and is a “mentally ill man who thinks he’s a woman.”

She then went on a diatribe accusing Levine of “mutilating and castrating kids” with no evidence. Gender-affirming surgery is almost never performed on minors and never on young children, and Greene didn’t cite any statement from Levine to support the notion that she wants to change the current standards of care for trans youth. Gender-affirming care has been shown to be potentially life-saving. Major medical associations in the U.S., including the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, support it and oppose state bans on this type of medical care.

“It is our job to protect children from sexual groomers like Levine!” Greene said. “And reducing his salary to $1 is a strong first step.”

For the past several months, House Republicans have been proposing amendments to large spending bills to reduce the salaries of Biden administration officials to $1. The measures are unlikely to pass the Senate and very unlikely to be signed into law by President Joe Biden since they’re partisan attacks on his administration. Moerover, they put the large budget bills they’re being attached to in jeopardy, which could lead to a federal government shutdown.

Just last week, Greene introduced an amendment to reduce out gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s salary to $1. In her speech, Greene cited debunked claims and bad Facebook videos as evidence that Buttigieg was a liar and wasting public funds. She also said that he was spending money to “receive awards for the way certain people have sex.”

Also last week, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) introduced an amendment to lower out lesbian White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s salary to $1. She claimed that Jean-Pierre lied on multiple occasions. But many of the examples Tenney produced weren’t lies, and others weren’t even falsifiable statements that could be true or false.

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