Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon-supporting Republican who is known for pushing conspiracy theories and making racists comments, previously tried to force Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to retake their congressional oaths on the Bible.
Video footage surfaced on Wednesday of Ms Greene walking through the halls of Congress prior to being elected as a Georgia representative.
In the footage, she was claiming that Ms Omar and Ms Tlaib were illegitimate Democratic representatives because they took their oaths of office on the Quran instead of the Bible.
Were going to explain about how you cant swear in on the Quran, Ms Greene said in the footage. Were going to have the Bible and ask them if they would swear in on the Bible I think thats important.
Someone off-camera then told Ms Greene that she was infringing on the two representatives religion by asking them to take their oaths of office with the Bible instead of the Quran.
It wasnt a law yet at the time they swore in. I think at the time they swore in it wasnt passed, because it wouldnt pass in a Republican-controlled ... Ms Greene said. So theyre not really official, I dont think.
What she was insinuating in that video was that there was some law that required all members of Congress to be sworn in on the Bible. At the time of Ms Omar and Ms Tlaibs ceremonies, Ms Greene claimed, there was no law allowing them to use a Quran over the Bible.
This position has been repeated in recent years by other fringe members of the Republican party, and its inaccurate.
There has never been a law in United States history that requires an elected official of the country to take the oath of office with a Bible or any other religious text. The United States Constitution actually states "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. Why does the Constitution specifically say this? The Framers of the Constitution valued the separation of church versus state.
Four presidents and several members of Congress have been sworn in without the use of a Bible.
The resurfaced video comes after a CNN KFile report revealed that Ms Greene has filled her social media feed with several extremist viewpoints in recent years before she was elected to office in November.
In a January 2019 Facebook post, Ms Greene liked a comment advocating a bullet to the head for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to a screenshot shared by CNN.
Another post from April 2018 involved a commenter asking, Now do we get to hang them ?? when speaking about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Ms Greene responded: Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off.
She did not denounce the suggestion of executing the two political figures.
On Twitter, Mrs Clinton shared the report of the representatives past social media activity and said: This woman should be on a watch list. Not in Congress.
Ms Greene took to Twitter to defend herself after the CNN report was published.
Over the years, Ive had teams of people manage my pages. Many posts have been liked. Many posts have been shared. Some did not represent my views, she wrote.
She added that Facebook posts from random users were being used to try and cancel me and silence my voice.
But these werent the only instances where Ms Greene exhibited extremist behaviour or promoted conspiracy theories.
Previously, Ms Greene has claimed the Parkland shooting was staged and that there are Democratic lawmakers in Congress who participate in child abuse. The representative was also vocally supportive of former President Donald Trumps baseless claims that he won the 2020 presidential election.
Ms Greenes statements on Twitter have caused her to be temporarily banned from the social media site and lawmakers are now calling for her removal from office.
Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy has revealed he would be speaking to Ms Greene following the recent reports of her social media activity.
These comments are deeply disturbing and Leader McCarthy plans to have a conversation with the Congresswoman about them, Mark Bednar, a spokesperson for Mr McCarthy, told Axios.