There has been an angry reaction to Marjorie Taylor Greene after she branded decorated veteran and former national security adviser Alexander Vindman a “clown” on Twitter for rebuking her for comments she made about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Republican representative from Georgia was attempting to blame President Joe Biden for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Sunday when she posted on Twitter: “Tragically, people are dying because of Biden’s poor decision-making leading up to Putin declaring war on Ukraine.”
Ms Greene continued: “Biden’s weakness and failure as a leader not only has put America last but is a danger to the entire world.
“We can not put American lives at risk under the same failed leadership who ran the Afghanistan withdrawal disaster,” she added. “We have to put America First.”
Mr Vindman, who testified in the first impeachment of former President Donald Trump regarding his attempt to extract a quid pro quo from then-newly elected Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, replied to her tweet later the same day.
“Nope. It’s because you and your pro-Putin party encouraged Putin to invade, by cheerleading him. Worse yet, you undermined @POTUS efforts to signal punishing costs … you undermined US efforts [to] deter the war. You have blood in your hands. The American people will not forget,” he wrote.
On Monday, Ms Greene responded: “This clown wants to drag Americans into war with Russia with his big tough tweets and his zoom interviews on CNN. Go ahead and go fight yourself since you’re from Ukraine.”
She added: “You are clueless about Americans being fed up with sending our sons and daughters to die in foreign lands.”
The former NSC director for European affairs was born in Ukraine and brought to the US with his twin brother by their father in 1979 following the death of their mother.
With his extensive military experience, family ties to Ukraine, and history with the Trump administration, Mr Vindman has appeared regularly on cable news since Russia began its invasion.
He is also a combat veteran of the Iraq War and received a Purple Heart after sustaining an injury from a roadside bomb, so is personally familiar with the concept of American sons and daughters fighting in foreign lands.
Many on Twitter leapt to Mr Vindman’s defence, lambasting the Republican lawmaker as wrong and “pro-Putin”, standing up for the veteran, and reminding people of some of Ms Greene’s wilder conspiracy theory statements.
Mr Vindman’s wife, Rachel, also responded: “We all know you are crazy stupid but why do you insist on telling us over and over?”
Congressman Adam Kinzinger tweeted: “MTG is intensely pro-Putin. This tweet even has twinges of Putinism in it. She blames Biden for not being tough, then in anger puts out a tweet that makes Putin smile. (Never say what you’ll never do). MTG enabled Vladimir. MTG would never fight for anything that’s not self.”
He added: “Now let’s see she attacked on LTC Vindman, let’s see if she attacks another LTC with not a sane argument, but hysteric anti-Biden worn-out talking points.”
Ms Greene recently spoke at a white nationalist event at which those in attendance cheered Russian President Vladimir Putin raising the ire of members of her own party including Mr Kinzinger, Mitt Romney, and Liz Cheney.
She claimed to members of the media that she was not familiar with the event’s host Nick Fuentes or the views of his organisation, and was merely there to promote an “America First” policy.
The controversial lawmaker has also claimed that Joe Biden is being blackmailed by Russia over son his Hunter Biden’s laptop in a conspiracy-laden response to the president’s State of the Union speech.
She made the comments soon after she heckled the president during his address along with her Republican colleague Lauren Boebert.
