Marjorie Taylor Greene Shut Down by Security Expert for Jack Teixeira Jibe

By

Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

Writers Page
US News Reporter
Trust Project Icon Newsweek Is A Trust Project Member

🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.

Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene has been accused of spreading "totally fallacious" information surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and its origins.

Speaking during a House hearing on COVID-19 on Tuesday, Greene accused the government of being able to track down the person behind the leaked Pentagon documents but not the origins of the virus.

"So, the intelligence community is able to figure out immediately who was leaking classified information in a Discord chat, but yet still doesn't want to say whether it came from the lab or didn't come from the lab," the Georgia congresswoman said. "The intelligence communities seem to release or not release information based on how the information will affect the government that it seems to protect."

Marjorie Taylor Greene
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) uses her phone while attending a hearing held by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic April 18, 2023 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Dr. Mark Lowenthal, president and CEO of the Intelligence & Security Academy in Arlington, Virginia, fired back at Greene, accusing her of misleading the public on the origins of COVID-19.

"May I respond to something else that you said in your comments, Ms. Greene?" Lowenthal said. "There is a vast, vast difference between tracking a leak on a social media site and determining the origins of this disease. And to compare the two is entirely fallacious, ma'am."

The intelligence expert's response started a spar between the two, with Greene shooting back: "Dr. Lowenthal, you've said that you keep your intelligence claims and information nonpartisan. In 2018, Mr. Lowenthal, you were quoted in the New York Times saying that President Trump is the best president that Russia ever had. That sounds pretty political to me."

"I was no longer an intelligence officer at the time, ma'am," Lowenthal, who worked in U.S. intelligence for over forty years, said. "I'm a private citizen."

Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was arrested last Thursday by federal investigators for allegedly posting dozens of highly classified documents in an online chat group on Discord. The group, Thug Shaker Central, included about two dozen people—mostly young men and teenagers—sharing their common love for guns, video games and racist memes.

The 21-year-old suspect was arrested after a week-long investigation, with the FBI using social media records to identify the origin of the leak of the highly sensitive government records.

Tracking down the origin of COVID-19, on the other hand, is an entirely different operation. The World Health Organization (WHO) commissioned a study in 2021 to be conducted jointly between its own experts and Chinese scientists. The study concluded that the virus had most likely originated in bats and moved to humans via an intermediate host.

But the study hasn't ended the debate around the origin of the virus, especially as a number of researchers have complained about being given limited access to relevant data by Chinese authorities.

Request Reprint & Licensing Submit Correction View Editorial & AI Guidelines

Top stories

About the writer

Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

Writers Page

Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more