GOP Lt. Gov from Rep. Greene’s Home State Condemns Party’s Embrace of Misinformation, Conspiracies: ‘Cost Us Two Senate Seats in Georgia’

The second-highest state official in GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s home state — who is also a Republican — called out both her and his party for trafficking in toxic conspiracy theories and other forms of politically corrosive misinformation.

Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan has spent much of the past two months publicly contradicting former President Donald Trump and other “big lie” election fraud proponents. Duncan made several appearances on CNN in the lead up to the early January Senate runoffs — which were ultimately won by Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock — to repeatedly push back at Trump’s false claims about voter fraud in his state. So much so, that the then-president attacked Duncan in early December and called for him to be “replaced.”

“We have spoken in the past months,” CNN host Erin Burnett noted, as she hosted Duncan on Wednesday night show. “You talked about the need for GOP 2.0. Yet here we are. You are from the same state as Congresswoman Greene. What do you think about what’s going on in your party right now that [House Minority Leader Kevin] McCarthy is backing her?”

“I don’t live in Representative Greene’s district,” Duncan noted, of the QAnon-believing freshman House representative. “My opinion is we are headed in the wrong direction. If we continue to elect folks that take her approach, we’re going to continue to lose as Republicans. It’s that simple. It is hard to watch. I got to spend 10 weeks in the front row seat, watching what conspiracy theories and misinformation does, and honestly, cost us two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia. I can’t imagine anybody thinks it is a good idea to move the way she’s moving through her actions.”

Burnett then pointed out Greene’s rebuttal to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) calling her views a “cancer” on the party, in which she said the real cancer is that they “lose gracefully.”

“I was stunned by that,” the CNN host added. “How do you get your head around this, right, that you still have obviously the leadership in Washington willing to support and condone that sort of talk?”

Duncan called Greene’s outrageous and bigoted claims a “side show,” saying it “distracts the folks we’re trying to keep with us and the folks we’re trying to attract.”

Burnett challenged that characterization, however. “You have the leader of the Republican Party in Congress backing her,” she pointed out. “You have Republicans in Congress who are unwilling to back Liz Cheney for voting her conscience. This unfortunately isn’t a side show, it seems to go to the core of the entire fate of your party, governor.”

“I’m here in Georgia, I’m not in Washington, D.C.,” Duncan replied. “My job is to continue to put conservative policies on display for 11 million Georgians, try to convince them our leadership style is the best strategy for them, their families, their businesses and their future. To me that’s the best message for Republicans. Let them fight out what they’re going to fight in D.C. But at the end of the day, we need strong leaders that are willing to be inclusive, that are willing to take on big issues, prove our style of leadership works.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.