BRIEF: Marjorie Taylor Greene coming to Kootenai County for Lincoln Day Dinner, Protest Planned in Response

News Brief by Nina Culver

The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee has invited controversial U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) to be the keynote speaker at its annual Lincoln Day Dinner on Saturday (Feb. 11), the group’s largest fundraiser of the year.

Greene has been a controversial figure since she was elected in 2020. She’s been a staunch supporter of former president Donald Trump and expressed her support for various QAnon conspiracy theories, which she has since disavowed.

She was stripped of her committee assignments in 2021 following a bipartisan vote in the full House after making statements threatening violence against other lawmakers and her support of various conspiracy theories. CNN reported she used her Facebook page to support executing Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before she was elected to Congress.

Greene also voiced her support for Christian Nationalism in a video interview with self-described independent journalist Taylor Hansen in 2022.

“I’m a Christian and I say it proudly,” she said during the interview. “We should be Christian Nationalists.”

Greene also sponsored a piece of legislation called the Protect Children’s Innocence Act (H.R. 8731) that would criminalize gender-affirming care for minors, making it a felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison.

The other featured guest at the Lincoln Day Dinner will be Alex Stein, a self-described “professional troll” and “right-wing comedian” who is known for publicly confronting people he disagrees with politically. Tickets for the event at the Coeur d’Alene Resort were $175 but have been sold out for weeks.

Committee chairman Brent Regan indicated he might respond to emailed questions about the event, but never responded to the questions that were sent.

On its website, the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee claims to be the “heart and soul of North Idaho” fighting “to preserve Freedom and Liberty in North Idaho.”

However, there has been some fracturing in the Republican Party in North Idaho recently. In April 2020, a group of former elected Republican representatives, including former Kootenai County Sheriff Ben Wolfinger, created the North Idaho Republican Party over concerns that the Republican Central Committee is too extreme.

The Kootenai County Democrats are organizing a “Make North Idaho Decent Again” protest against Greene on Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. at Independence Point, using social media posts to encourage people to create signs “in support of free speech and against the dumbing down of Democracy.”

“Standing up against hate and extremism is not just a moral obligation, it is a crucial step toward creating a better, safer world for all of us,” the group wrote on its Facebook page. “Protests provide a platform for individuals to come together and raise their voices against injustice, bigotry and discrimination. They are a powerful tool for creating change and promoting equality and respect for all individuals, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation. When we come together in protest, we send a clear message to those to seek to spread hate: they will not be tolerated.”