'Adolf Hitler or Satan Himself': Marjorie Taylor Greene Advocates for All Monuments at 2020 City Council Meeting in Dalton, Georgia

Then-congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene defended keeping all statues and monuments, even of unsavory figures, for the purpose of teaching history during an appearance at a City Council meeting in Dalton, Georgia, on June 15, 2020.

“As a mother of three kids I always want to be able to point to statues, monuments, or any type of history so that I can tell my children and teach them lessons in our country’s history whether they’re good, bad, embarrassing, something that I’m happy about, something that I’m sad about, or something that I wish hadn’t happened,” Greene said.

“We are seeing situations where Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, all kinds of statues are being attacked. It seems to be an effort to take down history. Whether I see a statue that may be something that I fully disagree with, like Adolf Hitler, maybe it’s a statue of Satan himself, I would not want to say take it down. But again, so that I can tell my children and teach others about who these people are and what they did and what they may be about.”

In June of 2020 Confederate statue removal was a hot-button issue. Local news reports said statue removal – specifically the statue of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston in Dalton – was not on the meeting’s agenda. However, local people and outsiders, such as Greene, came to argue both for and against statue removal. During her speech Greene said she advocated for the preservation of all statues and monuments, and that her statement was not meant to be a specific commentary on the statue of Johnston.

Greene, who is from Rome, Georgia, was elected in November and represents Georgia’s 14th congressional district. She recently came under fire for comparing COVID-19 safety guidelines to Nazi tactics during the Holocaust. Credit: City of Dalton Georgia via Storyful