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| - A rumor circulating online in November 2024 claimed that U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said if every member of Congress had to resign for what women accused Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., of doing, "Democrats would have a supermajority."
However, the truth was this rumor originated in a post on X from The Halfway Post (archived) — a network of social media accounts and a website that describes its output as being satirical in nature.
The About page on halfwaypost.com states the website's owner publishes "real comedy news and satire."
Gaetz's Allegations, Nomination, Resignation and Withdrawal
This rumor picked up steam as Gaetz's name dominated headlines in late November 2024.
On Nov. 21, The New York Times reported breaking news about Gaetz withdrawing from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general. The article highlighted Gaetz's denials of allegations related to a Justice Department investigation into his suspected involvement in the sex trafficking of a girl, as well as recently surfaced claims of paying women for sex, including testimony two women provided to federal investigators. The Times wrote, "A lawyer for the two women said payments to them totaled around $10,000."
On Nov. 22 — the day after he dropped out of the running for the post — he told conservative commentator Charlie Kirk he had no plans to return to Congress. Gaetz said, "I think that eight years is probably enough time in the United States Congress."
Gaetz resigned from his House seat on Nov. 13, shortly after Trump announced his nomination for attorney general. The Times noted he stepped down just two days before the possible release of a House Ethics Committee report regarding the allegations against him, saying his resignation "effectively brought an end to the investigation since he was no longer a congressman in the panel's jurisdiction."
Posts Sharing the Satirical Rumor as Fact
As for the rumor involving Greene's purported remarks, we located numerous posts mentioning the same misleading claim on Facebook, Threads and X, as well as in at least two Reddit comments.
For example, on Nov. 21, a user on Threads posted (archived), "BREAKING: Marjorie Taylor Greene says if every member of Congress had to resign for doing what Matt Gaetz has been accused of, 'Democrats would have a supermajority.'"
Greene never said this.
The same day, the Being Liberal Facebook page posted the rumor to more than 1.6 million followers (archived). Another page associated with Being Liberal also displayed the claim in a different post (archived).
In this Facebook post, the satirical rumor from The Halfway Post appeared above a screenshot of a genuine post made by Greene on X.
The Facebook posts included a screenshot of a genuine post from Greene's @RepMTG account on X, in which she said on Nov. 19 that if Republican members voted for the release of Gaetz's ethics report, other reports should also be made public.
Greene's real post (archived) read:
For my Republican colleagues in the House and Senate,
If we are going to release ethics reports and rip apart our own that Trump has appointed, then put it ALL out there for the American people to see.
Yes..
all the ethics reports and claims including the one I filed
all your sexual harassment and assault claims that were secretly settled paying off victims with tax payer money
the entire Jeffrey Epstein files, tapes, recordings, witness interviews
but not just those, there's more, Epstein wasn't/isn't the only asset
If we're going to dance, let's all dance in the sunlight.
I'll make sure we do.
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