Conspiracy Theories

After a 230-199 vote, the House of Representatives has voted to strip Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments, following uproar over her past incendiary comments and apparent support of violence against Democrats.

Greene had promoted baseless QAnon conspiracy theories and endorsed violence against Democrats. Still, before the vote, she said she regretted her views, which included claims that school shootings and 9/11 were staged.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell denounced Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday, calling her embrace of conspiracy theories "loony lies" and a "cancer of the Republican Party".

"Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country," McConnell said in a statement. "Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.'s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party."

Newly-elected Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has filed articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden, accusing him of corruption and abuse of power. Greene, who has ties to the QAnon conspiracy theory, announced her move on Twitter, which previously blocked her account for "multiple violations of our civic integrity policy" following the Capitol Hill riots.

Greene previously alleged that Biden allowed his son, Hunter Biden, "to siphon cash from America’s greatest enemies Russian and China".

"President Joe Biden is unfit to hold the office of the presidency. His pattern of abuse of power as President Obama’s vice president is lengthy and disturbing," so Greene.

President Donald Trump has said he would leave the White House on January 20 if the Electoral College declares President-elect Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

When asked whether he would leave the White House, Trump responded: "Certainly I will. And you know that. If they do, they made a mistake." He added that it would be "a very hard thing to concede" under the current circumstances and again claimed that the "election was a fraud" without giving concrete evidence.

Attila Hildmann has been searched by the police. State protectors searched the flat of the vegan cook, who calls himself "ultra-right" and a conspiracy preacher, in Brandenburg on Tuesday. A police spokesman said that the search had been ordered by the district court of Bernau (Barnim) at the request of the Cottbus public prosecutor's office for the purpose of security. According to the police spokesman, several investigations are underway at the Cottbus public prosecutor's office against Hildmann, including on suspicion of sedition.

During Monday's interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham, President Donald Trump alleged that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was controlled by people in "dark shadows".

When asked by Ingraham to elaborate, Trump answered: "There are people that are on the streets, there are people that are controlling the streets. People you haven’t heard of. We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend, and in the plane it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that. They’re on a plane."

Trump claimed he couldn't say any more as it was "under investigation right now," but that those people were coming "from a certain city" to do "big damage" and that they were funded by "some very stupid rich people."

"Unmasking America!", one of the largest anti-mask groups on Facebook, has been removed for the violation of Facebook's policies against spreading misinformation about Covid-19. The group, with almost 10,000 members, was sharing what they called "the TRUTH about masks" and claimed masks would obstruct oxygen flow and that masks were a "psychological anchor for suppression, enslavement and cognitive obedience."

After an inquiry from The Verge, Facebook spokesperson Dami Oyefeso responded: "We have clear policies against promoting harmful misinformation about COVID 19 and have removed this group while we review the others."

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution in North Rhine-Westphalia warns that conspiracy theories can lead to terror. However, this would affect all forms of extremism and could be observed in the right and left spectrum.

Burkhard Feier, head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in NRW, said: "We see several worrying trends in the area of right-wing extremism. The neo-Nazi milieus are becoming more and more radicalized.".