Did a GOP Lawmaker Accuse Nancy Pelosi of Having a ‘Gazpacho Police’?

Conspiracy-theory-slinging Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) bungled her latest attempt to paint Democrats as tyrants in a rant that spread online on February 9 2022.

The conservative group The Republican Accountability Project captured Greene’s remarks to the right-wing channel “Real America’s News” and posted the footage on Twitter.

She said:

Not only do we have the D.C. jail which is the D.C. gulag, but now we have [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi’s gaspacho police spying on members of Congress, spying on the legislative work that we do, spying on our staff, and spying on American citizens that want to come talk to their representatives. This government has turned into something it was never meant to be, and it’s time to make it end.

“Just to clear things up,” the group wrote alongside the video. “Gazpacho: a vegetable-based Spanish cold soup … Gestapo: Nazi Germany’s secret police.”

Besides the obvious gaffe, Greene’s remarks made reference to two other false right-wing talking points; she made reference to the accusation by fellow Republican Rep. Troy Nehls that Capitol Police “illegally” investigated his office leading to questioning from “intelligence officers;” and that the January 6 2022 coup attempt against the U.S. Capitol was non-violent.

Greene’s statement came just days after her party’s national committee further tried to downplay the events of the attack, which led to 5 deaths, by calling it “legitimate political discourse.” The committee further moved to censure two party members, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois), for taking part in the ongoing House investigation into the attack.

“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line,” committee chair Ronna McDaniel Romney said about the move. “They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”

Romney later claimed that her words had been misquoted.

In October 2021, Rolling Stone reported that Greene was one of several Republican lawmakers who met with organizers of the demonstration that preceded the attack.

“I remember Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically,” one organizer told the magazine. “I remember talking to probably close to a dozen other members at one point or another or their staffs.”

A spokesperson for Greene denied the accusation. Shortly after that story was published, she defended the riot by likening it to the Declaration of Independence.

Greene voted against both the Electoral College’s certification of U.S. President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election and a June 2021 bill awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to officers who defended the Capitol against the coup attempt.