Marjorie Taylor Greene responds to claims Trump influenced her TikTok vote
Washington DC - Far-right MAGA Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene recently voted against a House bill to ban TikTok, but she is insisting that Donald Trump's opposition had nothing to do with her decision.
On Wednesday, after the House of Representatives approved a bill that would force TikTok to divest from its parent company or face a nationwide ban, Greene was asked by reporters about her decision to vote nay.
The Georgia congresswoman asserted that she is "the only member of Congress that has ever been banned by social media" and argued the bill "is opening Pandora's box" to allow government and social media companies to "censure and ban Americans."
She went on to pose the hypothetical that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg could buy Twitter and eventually TikTok, which she has a problem with as she does not have "full free speech" on Facebook.
Her vote came after Trump, who had previously vowed to ban the platform, came out against the bill, breaking from the majority of House Republicans. In an interview with Newsmax, he described Facebook as "the enemy of the people" and claimed Zuckerberg spent millions to rig the 2020 presidential election against him.
When MTG, who last year was dubbed MAGA's MVP, was asked if Trump had any influence on her take, she insisted that wasn't the case.
"I haven't spoken to Donald Trump about the bill," Greene claimed. "These were my own conclusions, and I made the vote based on my own conclusions and by reading the bill myself."
Marjorie Taylor Greene supported TikTok ban before Trump reversed position
MTG is arguably one of Trump's most vocal supporters in Congress today and has vowed to use every ounce of influence and power she has to ensure that he gets re-elected in November when he faces off with President Joe Biden in the general election.
Similarly to Trump, Greene has previously supported a ban on TikTok and regularly criticizes China as an enemy of the US, and social media users have been digging up old posts contradicting her recent comments.
In a post shared only four months ago, Greene claimed that TikTok is "brainwashing our kids with [Chinese Communist Party] propaganda" and accused the platform of banning conservatives.
While speaking with reports, Greene went on to say that Trump has his own opinion, and her sharing it "doesn't mean we're all robots."
Cover photo: Elijah Nouvelage / AFP