On Wednesday, hard right-wing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) took the concept of thin-skinned to soaring new heights when she claimed that she filed a report with the U.S. Capitol Police against Jimmy Kimmel for making a joke at her expense.
No, really.
On Tuesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Kimmel had mocked Greene for her arguably slanderous accusation that three of her fellow Republicans are “pro-pedophile” for supporting Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson. (Jackson has also been baselessly accused of being pro-pedophilia by an alarmingly high number of Republicans, but so far those other Republicans haven’t also turned this gross line of attack on their own side.)
So in his monologue, Kimmel quoted her baseless accusations verbatim, then joked, “Wow. Where is Will Smith when you really need him, huh?”
Now, Kimmel’s joke was obviously a reference to Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, apparently in retaliation for a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Obviously Kimmel wasn’t literally suggesting that Smith travel to Washington, D.C., to assault Greene, though the tastefulness of the joke can be debated. But Greene claims she considered this a threat, and tweeted this:
So, to recap, Greene, who has repeatedly and baselessly accused people of supporting pedophila, is now claiming that she felt so threatened by a joke that she called the cops.
Now, she has a history of making “unfactual” statements. For instance, in her accusation that three Republicans are “pro-pedophilia,” she falsely claimed that a vote on Jackson’s confirmation has taken place (it hasn’t.) Also the whole Jewish Space Lasers thing, among many other things. So we are somewhat skeptical she’s telling the truth here. Even so, this reporter did attempt contact the Capitol Police to verify her claim, though they didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Kimmel had a response of his own that blithely mocked Greene’s latest (sadly very successful) attempt at drawing more attention to herself.