Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia Republican, baselessly claimed in a “60 Minutes” interview aired Sunday that the Democratic Party is driven by pedophiles.
The 14-minute segment, filmed before Trump’s indictment, was the subject of controversy before the CBS broadcast, with critics questioning whether the congresswoman should receive the primetime platform.
Greene, a purveyor of wild conspiracy theories, has falsely asserted that former President Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim and that Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is “guilty of treason,” adding that the crime is “punishable by death.”
In a tweet on Friday, Adam Kinzinger, a Republican former congressman from Illinois, panned the programming decision as “insane.” Nikole Hannah-Jones, a magazine journalist, tweeted Saturday that the interview amounted to the “type of normalizing that mainstream media did of segregationists.”
After the broadcast began, Keith Olbermann, the liberal commentator, tweeted that the segment was a “bad look.”
CBS News did not immediately respond Sunday night to a request for comment on the criticism.
Though the segment had humanizing flourishes — Greene was shown lifting weights and speaking to constituents — the interviewer, Lesley Stahl, also grilled the Georgian on her views and statements.
At times, the conversation grew testy.
After Greene said that the Democratic Party advocates “grooming children” and that she would “definitely” call them a party of pedophiles, Stahl responded: “They are not pedophiles. Why would you say that?”
At another point, Greene said, “I don’t think we have a revenue problem in Washington. We have a spending problem.”
Stahl replied, “That’s glib.”
Still, Greene praised Stahl, a veteran 81-year-old newswoman, in a Twitter post on Saturday.
“It was an honor to spend a few days with the legendary icon Leslie Stahl,” Greene wrote, misspelling Stahl’s first name. “Leslie is a trailblazer for women in journalism.”
“And while we may disagree on some issues, I respect her greatly,” Greene added.
Separately, Greene said Sunday that she would decamp to New York on Tuesday to protest the expected arrest of former President Donald Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
“60 Minutes,” has rarely shied away from controversial subjects.
In the past, the program has interviewed Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber; Vladimir Putin, the Russian president; and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini.
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