Post misleads on photo of Marjorie Taylor Greene in a mask. It's from 2021 | Fact check
The claim: Post implies Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was wearing a mask in June 2024
A June 3 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes a photo of Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wearing a face mask while standing in line at an airport.
“So, attacking Dr. Fauci and criticizing vaccines and mask efficacy, then WEARING a mask in public is the very definition of Republican hypocrisy,” reads the post.
Several users took this to mean the photo was from after Greene criticized Dr. Anthony Fauci at a House subcommittee hearing in early June.
“It’s obvious why she’s wearing a mask NOW,” reads one of the comments.
“100% she’s doing this to hide,” reads another.
The post received more than 20,000 likes in four days. Another version of the claim circulated widely on X, formerly Twitter.
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Our rating: Missing context
The implied claim here is wrong. The photo was taken in September 2021, when the Atlanta airport had a mask mandate in place.
Photo taken when Atlanta airport had a mask mandate
The image predates by nearly three years Greene's June 3 exchange with Fauci during the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability's hearing. During the hearing, Greene criticized Fauci's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and referred to Fauci, an immunologist who served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases until 2022, as "Mister" instead of "Doctor."
The same photo included in the social media posts can be seen in Politico's Sept. 20, 2021, Playbook newsletter, which reported Greene was spotted wearing a mask at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Liberal pundit Brian Tyler Cohen also posted the photo that day.
It was taken amid the airport's mask mandate, which was in place until April 2022.
Greene has been a longtime opponent of such mandates. The congresswoman was fined tens of thousands of dollars for refusing to wear a mask on the House floor and controversially compared mask and vaccination mandates to Nazis' persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.
Fact check: Decades-old quote misattributed to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
Paste BN has debunked an array of claims about Greene, including false assertions that the congresswoman said Judge Juan Merchan “forced” former President Donald Trump to delete a social media post about Stormy Daniels, that an authentic video shows Greene holding a “bloodbath” sign and that a video shows Greene impeaching Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Paste BN reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
AFP Fact Check and Snopes also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- Brian Tyler Cohen, Sept. 20, 2021, Facebook post
- POLITICO, Sept. 20, 2021, POLITICO Playbook: Scoop: Sinema issues ultimatum to Biden
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