Marjorie Taylor Greene calls Congress metal detectors the 'real voter suppression'
During a House floor debate on the For the People Act on March 2, 2021, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called the metal detectors installed at the Capitol after January 6 the 'real voter suppression,' while separately saying lines to vote are not suppression at all.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., told the House floor on March 2, 2021 that gun-safety screening measures at the Capitol amounted to the "real voter suppression," during debate on H.R. 1, the Democrat-backed For the People Act, according to Newsweek and Forbes. "While we're talking about voter suppression and long lines, I'd like to point out that there's real voter suppression that happens right here in Congress," Greene said, per Newsweek. "Many members of Congress have to stand in long lines to enter the chamber going through metal detectors, emptying our pockets and being treated very disrespectfully."
The metal detectors Greene referenced were installed at entrances to the House chamber around January 12, 2021, in the wake of the January 6 Capitol insurrection, Newsweek reported. Several House Republicans opposed the screening from the start; some refused to be screened or demanded exemptions, prompting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to impose fines on non-compliant members, per Newsweek's account.
In the same remarks, Greene appeared to undercut her own comparison, saying standing in line to vote is not voter suppression at all: "standing in line to vote is not voter suppression, it's just part of the voting process, just like people stand in line to buy groceries," she said, according to Forbes.
The bill she was opposing
H.R. 1, the For the People Act, was a sweeping Democratic election-reform bill aimed at countering state-level voting restrictions, limiting political spending and gerrymandering, and imposing new ethics rules on federal officials, per Forbes. The legislation had passed the House once before, in 2019, but was blocked in the then-GOP-controlled Senate, Forbes reported. Voting-rights advocates cited during the debate pointed to documented cases of voters waiting up to 10 hours to cast ballots in the 2020 election, disproportionately in poorer communities and communities of color, per Newsweek's account.
Reaction and other Republican objections
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., defended the metal detectors' necessity in floor remarks, referencing a September 2020 Facebook post by Greene that had shown her posing with a firearm alongside images of Ocasio-Cortez and other female Democratic colleagues of color — content Facebook had removed for violating its policy against violent threats, according to Newsweek. Other House Republicans opposed H.R. 1 on separate grounds: Forbes reported Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., warned the bill would "nationalize" elections; Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., called it a "federal takeover"; Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., said it "infringes on states' rights"; and Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., said it "flies in the face" of local election officials.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by Newsweek and Forbes. It restores a story originally published on this site in March 2021; figures are as reported at the time.