Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said Dr. Anthony Fauci “belongs in prison” for “crimes against humanity” at a conservative conference in Detroit on Saturday.
Greene gave a speech at Turning Point USA’s People’s Convention this weekend, where she dug into Democratic politicians and the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ll never forget when the Biden administration and Nancy Pelosi, as speaker of the House, brought in nearly 30,000 National Guardsmen and turned our Capitol complex into a military base,” she told the audience. “They masked schoolchildren. They shut down schools. They closed beaches. They silenced your speech.”
ADVERTISEMENT
“They attacked the very core of our freedoms, all for a virus that they made in a lab in Wuhan, China,” she added. “And yes, Doctor Anthony Fauci should be tried for crimes against humanity.”
The crowd then broke into cheers of “Lock him up!” to which Greene responded: “I can assure you, if I have anything to do with it, we will lock him up! He belongs in prison!”
Crimes against humanity generally refers to large-scale attacks on civilians in the form of murder, torture, sexual violence, enslavement, persecution, and enforced disappearance. Previous leaders charged with crimes against humanity include Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, and leaders of the Nazi party.
Fauci, a career public health official, is a frequent target for conservatives who claim his advocacy for masking and social distancing restricted their freedoms.
At a hearing before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic this month, Republicans accused him of funding research that started the pandemic and of covering up the “lab leak” theory—the same theory Greene referenced in her speech, which posits the virus originated from a lab in Wuhan, China. (Greene also suggested Fauci should be imprisoned at that hearing.)
“I cannot account nor can anyone account for other things that might be going on in China, which is the reason why I have always said and will say now, I keep an open mind as to what the origin is,” Fauci said at the time.
The convention where Greene spoke Saturday is the brainchild of Turning Point USA, a young conservatives group started by right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Other speakers this week include former President Donald Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr.; Rep. Matt Gaetz; former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Steve Bannon, and Ben Carson.
According to a report by Mother Jones, while Turning Point is billed as a youth organization, the conference itself was heavily attended by conservatives in their forties and beyond. Per the report, one of the conference’s biggest sponsors this year is the Association of Mature American Citizens.
