WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump dodged questions Friday about whether he shares similar views about the QAnon conspiracy theory as Republican congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene, just as another past controversial video and articles of hers have been unearthed.

What You Need To Know

  • The president dodged questions about his views on the QAnon conspiracy theory

  • A new video and writings have surfaced of GOP House candidate embracing conspiracies

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene has suggested Obama worked with MS-13 and Hillary Clinton had enemies killed

Greene, a businesswoman who won the GOP primary Tuesday in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District on Tuesday, has embraced the right-wing conspiracy theory that Trump is fighting a secret war against the “deep state.”

During a White House briefing Friday, Trump sidestepped a question about whether he agrees with Greene’s views on QAnon, saying only: “She did very well in the election. She won by a lot. She was very popular. She comes from a great state. And she had a tremendous victory, so, absolutely, I did congratulate her.”

When the reporter tried to press Trump on QAnon, he called on someone else.  

After Taylor’s victory Tuesday, Trump tweeted: “Congratulations to future Republican Star Marjorie Taylor Greene on a big Congressional primary win in Georgia against a very tough and smart opponent. Marjorie is strong on everything and never gives up - a real WINNER!”

There’s newly uncovered evidence showing just how much Greene swims in conspiracy theories.

Media Matters found a video from November 2018 in which she says the Obama administration used the MS-13 gang to have Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich assassinated in 2016 and that Hillary Clinton had John F. Kennedy Jr., who died in a 1999 plane crash, killed so she wouldn’t have to face him during her Senate run.  

She also falsely says Obama is Muslim and questions whether a plane actually struck the Pentagon on 9/11. “It's odd there's never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon,” she says in the video. (On Wednesday, she tweeted: "Some people claimed a missile hit the Pentagon. I now know that is not correct. The problem is our government lies to us so much to protect the Deep State, it's hard sometimes to know what is real and what is not.")

Greene also wrote for a now-defunct conspiracy website called “American Truth Seekers.” Using the Internet Archive's WayBack machine, NBC News unearthed some of her past articles, in which she wrote favorably about QAnon, further suggested Clinton had her political enemies killed and pushed the notion that the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting that left 58 concertgoers dead was planned with the aim of dismantling the Second Amendment. She also accused the Democratic Party of being involved in “Child Sex, Satanism, and the Occult.”

After Greene qualified for her primary runoff in June, Politico reported on newly discovered videos of her making racist, Islamaphobic and anti-Semitic comments. She said Black people “are held slaves to the Democratic Party,” the U.S. government is experiencing an “Islamic invasion,” and George Soros, a Democratic megadonor who is Jewish, turned Jews over to the Nazis, a conspiracy theory that has been proven false.

After those videos surfaced, there was some concern among some Republicans that a Greene victory would bring embarrassment to the party. But 57% of Republican voters in her district nevertheless supported her in Tuesday’s runoff.

“The Republican establishment was against me,” Greene told her reporters Tuesday night. “The D.C. swamp is against me. And the lying fake news media hates my guts. It’s a badge of honor. It’s not about me winning. This is a referendum on every single one of us, on our beliefs.”

Greene is expected to win the general election in the bright red district.