Claim:
Russian TV praised U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., as “a real beauty” and “demonstrably heterosexual.”
Rating:
On April 21, 2024, a clip from a Russian news broadcast purportedly praising U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was shared by accounts on X critical of Trump and his allies:
The clip, provided by the Russian Media Monitor YouTube channel, was authentic and correctly translated. Russian Media Monitor, which tracks Russian state media programming and propaganda trends, is a project of Daily Beast columnist Julia Davis.
In the clip, Russia-1 television host Vladimir Solovyov approvingly played a clip of Greene voting “no” on a military aid package that included substantial support for Ukraine. After playing the clip, both Solovyov and the head of Russia’s RT network, Margarita Simonyan, argued that attacks against Greene were unfair.
“Well of course she was immediately labeled a Russian agent,” Solovyov said after the clip. “Articles came out with a headline ‘Nyet’,” apparently referencing a New York Post headline from April 21, 2024:
“You have just shown how she is a beauty,” Simonyan responded. “She is one of the few members of Congress who is trying to look like a person in an old-fashioned sense of the word. She is a blonde, who wears white coats with a fur collar. She is demonstrably heterosexual.” Despite her alleged fashion sense, Simonyon complained, American media still label her a conspiracy theorist:
What do you think Wikipedia says about her? Who is Marjorie Taylor Greene? She is a conspiracy theorist. She has extreme right views. As soon as a person says something that shows they are normal, America’s media behemoth declares them a conspiracy theorist and a person of extreme right views.
It is relevant to note that Greene, in an effort to block passage of the military aid being discussed on Russian media, introduced myriad amendments to the bill that were conspiracy theories, Russian propaganda, or both.
One such amendment asked for funds “for the development of space laser technology on the southwest border.” Another stipulated that Ukraine could not receive money “until Ukraine closes all bio-laboratories and provides all data on such research to the United States Government” — a reference to a Russian talking point pushed heavily at the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Neither amendment succeeded.
According to the Russia Media Monitor’s Davis, the two pundits were trying to explain why a bill they had told their audience was destined to fail — military aid to Ukraine — somehow passed:
It seems like only yesterday Russia’s propagandists were rejoicing over the successful interruption of the US aid to Ukraine, reportedly at the behest of former US President Donald Trump. …
Celebrating the decline in Ukraine’s capabilities without American help, prominent propagandists started to refer to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson as “our Johnson,” in a similar vein to claiming Trump as their own, calling him “our Trump” or affectionately referring to him as Trumpushka.
When Speaker Johnson finally advanced the long-stalled aid package and the House approved $61bn of desperately needed foreign aid for Ukraine — including a measure to allow the sale of frozen Russian sovereign assets to help Ukraine’s war effort — the disappointment in Moscow was palpable.
Because the clip does indeed originate from Russian state-run media, and because a pundit on that show did describe Greene as “a real beauty” and “demonstrably heterosexual,” we rate the claim as “True.”
Sources:
Davis, Julia. “Putin’s Propagandists Rage Against the Republican ‘Betrayal.'” CEPA, 22 Apr. 2024, https://cepa.org/article/putins-propagandists-rage-against-the-republican-betrayal/.
“‘NYET’: New York Post Trolls ‘Moscow’ Marjorie Taylor Greene In Russian.” Yahoo News, 22 Apr. 2024, https://www.yahoo.com/news/nyet-york-post-trolls-moscow-073958592.html.
Russian Media Monitor. Margarita Simonyan Says Only Russia Can Stop This War. 2024. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-SYyNIAOkU.
