Picture of Marjorie Taylor Greene in mask is from 2021
- Published on June 6, 2024 at 17:36
- 2 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
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"So, attacking Dr.Fauci and criticizing vaccines and mask efficacy, then WEARING a mask in public is the very definition of Republican HYPOCRISY," says a June 3, 2024 post on X and Threads.
A similar post on X adds: "Look who is wearing a mask even though she doesn't believe #Covid is real. WELL @RepMTG what is really going on!"
The posts show an image of Greene wearing a mask while standing with her suitcase at an airport check-in line. They appeared after the Georgia lawmaker assailed Fauci during a June 3 congressional hearing, saying he should be in prison and "prosecuted for crimes against humanity" while refusing to address him as a doctor.
Greene spread false claims about Fauci's work as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and blasted him for the public health interventions that experts recommended at the height of the pandemic, such as masking and social distancing. At one point, she accused Fauci of "hypocrisy" and held up a photo that showed him with his mask below his chin while at a near spectator-less baseball game with his wife and a friend on July 23, 2020 -- around the peak of the health emergency.
Speaking to CNN after his June 3, 2024 testimony, Fauci said attacks like Greene's "are the kind of things that drive up the death threats" that have affected him and his family since his time at the helm of the US pandemic response.
The picture of Greene in a mask was not snapped after her latest comments about Fauci, as the posts spreading online claim.
Reverse image and keyword searches revealed the photo first appeared online years earlier, when Politico -- known for crowdsourcing photos of public figures -- linked to it in the September 20, 2021 edition of its flagship Playbook newsletter (archived here and here).
"SPOTTED: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), masked and waiting in line to board a flight at the Atlanta airport," the outlet reported.
Social media users also circulated the image after the newsletter's publication (archived here).
At the time, the Transportation Security Administration required US airline travelers to wear facial coverings (archived here).
AFP has debunked other misinformation about Greene here, here, here and here.
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