Marjorie Taylor Greene mocked for faux pas in Declaration of Independence

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was heavily ridiculed on social media after claiming that certain Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence when they did not.

On July 5, Greene wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “The average age of the signers of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, was 44, but more than a dozen were 35 or younger.” She then listed eight Founding Fathers and their ages on that day.

Hours later, the post received a community message saying six of the eight people she listed had not signed the document. As of Monday morning, Greene’s post had more than 2 million views, 10,000 likes and 6,500 comments. Newsweek asked Greene for comment outside of normal business hours.

Of the names listed in the post, only Thomas Jefferson and John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence. Although James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe, Aaron Burr, Paul Revere and George Washington were important figures in the American Revolution, they did not sign the document – as social media users were quick to note.

One user wrote on X: “75% of the ‘signers of the Declaration of Independence’ listed here by Marjorie Taylor Greene did not actually sign the document,” adding that the faux pas was a “reminder that it really is important for kids to stay in school.”

Another user mocked the congresswoman by claiming that Benjamin Franklin was the last signer of the document (it was Thomas McKean) and President of the United States, writing: “Thank you for that, Senator. And the last signature was made by Ben Franklin, who was President at the time. Patriotic facts.”

User @RepJackKimble, a parody account of a Republican representative for California’s 54th congressional district (the state has 52), wrote on X that Greene forgot to include other notable signers such as “Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, and Ronald Reagan?”

Greene, a Georgia Republican who rose to national prominence through her advocacy of decidedly right-wing policies, has made several dubious and false statements in the past.

In early June, she said Dr. Anthony Fauci should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity for his role in the U.S. government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In May, she said the FBI planned to assassinate Donald Trump when it raided his Florida home in August 2022.

In 2018, she claimed that the Rothschilds – a wealthy Jewish banking family often mentioned in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories – were involved in a profitable plot to use space lasers to start wildfires in California.

In April, she returned to the issue of space lasers, suggesting that the U.S. government should deploy Israeli “space lasers” on the border with Mexico to stop illegal migration.

Greene has also repeatedly expressed skepticism about the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and regularly spreads conspiracy theories and misinformation about the 2020 election. In 2021, she referred to inmates held in a Washington, D.C., prison in connection with the Capitol riots as “political prisoners of war.”