WASHINGTON — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for the US to be separated into red and blue states and to shrink the federal government in a President’s Day tweet, the latest in a series of controversial remarks from the two-term congresswoman.
“We need a national divorce. We need to separate the red states and the blue states and shrink the federal government,” Greene, R-Ga, said in the tweet. “Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting culture issues that have been shoved down our throats to the treacherous America Last policies of the Democrats, we are done.
The United States fought a civil war in the 1860s after a group of southern states tried to secede in an effort to maintain legal slavery for blacks.
Green has been known for her controversial statements, ranging from claims about alleged wildfires ignited by Jewish space lasers to accusations that Muslim congresswomen were not legitimately sworn in because they did not take the oath on the Bible. But there have been signs that she has been trying to rebrand herself as someone who can bridge the divisions in her party as she prepares to be Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024, NBC News reported last month.
Green is not the first Republican to call for some sort of succession and there are signs that support for secession has been on the rise since the 2020 election. A June 2021 poll by bright dial clock and YouGov found that 66% of Southern Republicans supported leaving the US and forming a new country. Support was also high among Democrats in the West, where 47% supported a split.