uh let's now welcome in uh marjorie
green she is a candidate uh for congress
in the georgia 14th congressional
district of Marjorie thanks for taking the
time today we really appreciate that
yeah thank you uh tell me this so uh
during the primary you got 41 percent of
the vote is that right 41
yes yes 41 so so i know a lot's happened
since the primary uh
tell me how things are going with your
campaign have you done
internal polling do you know what that
looks like
tell me your thoughts on how the
campaign stands here a little more than
a week out from the runoff
yeah we're working very hard um you know
first off in the primary
it was it was very exciting to be able
to take over 43 000
votes um against eight amazing opponents
i
i really had you know some great
opponents in the primary
and so i'm very humbled and honored
that so many people you know put their
faith in me
and voted for me during the primary so
that was that was wonderful
to take um you know such a strong
position in the primary taking a first
place position over um just so many good
opponents
and it was a lot of work and we're just
continuing that same hard work ethic
my campaign is all about people over
politicians
because i believe that's the way the
government should be running
just like a business i'm a private
business owner and so
for us it's always you know serving our
customer making sure we do a good job
and so my entire campaign
has been focused reaching you know all
the people
all the voters being on the ground and
talking to as many people
as we can and so that's what we're doing
that's what we've been doing in this
runoff
and um it's a lot of fun it's a lot of
work you know we have 12 counties
in our district and so that's where we
are on the ground every day
out and about so that's that's how
things are rolling
our internal polling is looking strong
i'm not going to share exact numbers
with you but i feel very confident
and so the biggest goal that we're
working on is the get out to vote effort
and making sure that all of my support
is able to get
get there and vote for me yeah like we
said you had 41
of the vote which means 59 of the folks
voting for someone else
for the people who didn't vote for you
or john cowan are you
hearing from those folks do you feel
like you're getting support
from people who supported other
candidates the first time around
yes absolutely i meet a lot of them
every single day i have
meet and greets almost every day many
events for door knocking
making phone calls and so we're reaching
you know pretty much all the voters uh
that are that are looking to be voting
in the runoff
yeah i've heard you speak i've seen all
your ads
we were part of a debate together for
the atlanta press club a couple weeks
ago
you've shown the ability to talk tough
right to to call out the democrats in
congress to
to challenge your opponent in in this in
this primary but we all know you know
leading
uh you know being a lawmaker is a lot
more than that right
what do you see inside this 14th
district um are the biggest challenges
facing uh the people of the district and
what are your plans to help
help those folks who may be uh needing
some help at this time
as we know during this pandemic a lot of
folks probably could use some help right
now
right absolutely well i think the
challenges facing
um you know pretty much everyone in the
14th district and across the country
are the same challenges that my husband
and i face
i'm not a politician i've i've never
held office before i'm a business owner
and i'm a wife and a mom of three kids
and so
i know that i know that life very well
because that's my life too
um you know being a business owner and
you know surviving through recessions
like we have with our construction
company
um also i've started up other businesses
and grown them to be successful
so i understand that day-to-day life
working really hard
working in the workplace problem solving
and
and working through issues and doing a
job well done
for our customers i understand that and
i also
understand the family life which is the
best part of my life
and so it's very easy for me to relate
to people
um no matter what the political you know
preferences are it's people are people
and you know all of us share the the
same issues
especially right now during this this
time
that none of us ever thought was
imaginable and it's been a really hard
time for people
you know having the government actually
shut down our economy
that's something that none of us have
ever been through and it was shocking
and
and scary and worrisome and now you know
the state of georgia thankfully governor
kemp has done a really good job moving
us
back open and you know through the
phases and
and i think everyone's doing a very good
job with that uh
so i i easily relate to people because
i'm just one of them you know i'm one of
the american people
uh just a normal person that finally
decided that
we really need to get in there in our
government and
and hold government accountable and and
get government to work for us
because that's that's how it's set up
and that's how it should be run yeah i
have a dalton specific question i talked
to some of the folks uh there some some
local leaders
in that community and uh the chamber of
commerce there uh
has a stat that said that clearly there
are good paying jobs in dalton
but more than 60 percent of the people
who live in dalton that make more than
forty thousand dollars a year
don't live in dalton don't live in
whitfield county they're driving in from
the atlanta
suburbs or from chattanooga or from
maybe the north georgia chattanooga
suburb
area any thoughts on on what can be done
to try to keep you know some of that
money for the economy there
in whitfield county for for the folks
because as as as
we know you look at i know that housing
is an issue there there's a lot of
of issues as far as as helping helping
that manufacturing sector grow and
helping that community grow
right well some of those issues are
things that i won't be able to work on
because
the position i'm running for for
congress as the united states
representative
won't be handling local issues such as
city or state i mean county
you know issues such as those taxes and
things and state taxes
however um as a representative uh
business is my background and that's
been my world for over two decades
it's something i fully understand and
and i
am a big believer in in our capitalist
system
and i want to see business grow i think
northwest georgia
has massive opportunity we've got the
i-75 corridor going and that goes right
through dalton
we have a port in chatsworth that is is
primed and ready to be able to import
goods
from savannah and i'm looking forward to
trying to help drive industry in there
but northwest georgia is just such a
wonderful place for
any type of business to look at moving
to even outside of the manufacturing
industry which is a large part of our
industry there so
as far as like people working in dalton
and commuting that's that's something
that i know the city and the county
uh will have to have to work on but i'm
happy to work with those leaders with
ideas
and and ways to solve those kind of
issues yeah we see watching lawmakers
all the time you know you know when a
big
you know manufacturing business comes
into town and helped to attract
you know more uh more businesses so so
that is something that that probably
if you are elected uh we'll uh you know
fall under that umbrella in some in some
ways so you will have a chance to
to help in some ways there yes i i want
to help um
there is there's something going on in
northwest georgia i'm not sure
how much you guys know about it or have
covered it but there there is an
investigation
going on into syndicated conservation
easements and
conservation easements are something
that are wonderfully set up for people
with family farms
and land that they want to preserve and
and keep safe
you know from high increases in taxes
over time
so they're they're set up for that type
of use however there's a tax abuse
shelter
um issue it's a massive issue
that's happening in northwest georgia
and senator chuck grassley
launched an investigation last year into
it and they have named
rome georgia and floyd county as the
epicenter
of this tax abuse shelter it's one of
the top 12
types of tax frauds in the united states
and they are heavily the irs and the
department of justice is heavily
investigating
this issue and it's but it's all over
northwest georgia and so
one of the problems has been is there's
been so much land
tied up into these syndicated
conservation easements which if i don't
know how much you know
but once they're put into an easement
they're they're permanently there
and that means no development can happen
on this land
so there's a lot of land unfortunately
that has been
tied up into these these types of
tax abuse shelters and so they're
fraudulent and so that is something i'm
also interested in looking in
looking into because unfortunately when
a small amount of people
a very small amount of people are
looking to abuse
a major loophole and they're abusing it
it's illegal
and they're looking at that and they've
they have cost the federal government
billions of dollars it's in the billions
um
with this just grotesque uh abuse of
of easements um what it's done is it's
tied up so much land
that it's blocked out these industries
and so you know a lot of companies
haven't been able to move in
and that's hurting the people because
that's blocking out jobs and that's
that's
new types of jobs new types of
industries and competing jobs for the
people that live here so
that's something i look forward to to
trying to work on
and and help out here in the district
understood i want to get into some
issues with the campaign you know uh you
know i mean
this campaign is is is it's unique
honestly i've been
covering politics um you know
consistently for 13 years been in tv
news for more than 20 years and
and i don't know i've ever seen a
campaign like this before um
let's let's just start with this and
this is not just your campaign so so
don't feel like
that we're coming right right at you
because we did this story last week with
with some senate races uh here in
in tennessee the issue of having
campaign events
indoors in close quarters and i see a
picture on your twitter feed right now
from paulden county that was i guess
yesterday
in a barbecue restaurant and it's no i
think there's two people in the in the
picture wearing masks
you're in close quarters there why don't
you wear a mask
in those events but what are your
thoughts on that
do you how do you keep people safe in
this environment
well my my thoughts are this is we have
the
freedom to wear a mask or not wear a
mask
now please understand that i say that
with a big interest involved um you know
with this coronavirus this chinese virus
so to speak that that has invaded our
country
crippled our economy um but it's also
i believe and most americans believe
it's been politicized in a lot of ways
um i have a special interest there and
we know who the risk group is
you see we we understand now that it's
unfortunately
our older population or people people in
our population that have underlying
health issues and those are the ones
that are
in severe risk and those are the ones
unfortunately
that we that we've lost um you know here
in our country
and you know my dad he is one of those
people he is in the risk group
and so he hardly gets to leave the house
he and my mom
stay home a lot so so understand i do
have a very
very big interest in keeping those
people safe
but i also am a big believer in freedom
and and i get that from my dad also
and he encourages me every day um and
and we just fully believe he and i both
believe and many people i talk to every
day
is that we need to have the freedom to
choose to wear the mask and not wear the
mask
and we need better ways to know how to
keep
the people in the wrist group safe while
allowing the rest of the population to
be able to build
herd immunity and be able to get back to
work and get back to school
because the the true reality is that
most the people in the population
while they may catch covid19 and
some of them may have a varying degree
of no symptoms to they may get
really sick but they'll recover we have
to get through this as a nation because
it's not leaving our country it's it's
going to be here and
we don't have a vaccine yet but our
economy is being crippled
our children we have a generation of
children who are
you know it's not fair what's happening
to them they're losing their
their education they're they're they're
losing their sports their activities
you know my kids i've got two in college
and one in high school
and it's been very sad to see how it's
affected their generation
and i worry very much about the younger
kids too who
who are learning to read and and need to
be in school
and and also maybe need special help and
and they're not getting it
and so um yeah you saw a big group of
people
my my events are always packed out uh
thankfully i mean it's it's amazing to
me that that so many people
love to come meet me and hear me speak
but i also give them the freedom
to to live their life as as they see fit
because this is the greatest country in
the world and thank god we have it that
way
and then i also respect those that come
in and they say
i'm wearing a mask i gotta i gotta stay
distance and i
i say absolutely let's make sure you're
safe and
and take care of you for that but that's
that's how we do it and um
i'm grateful for the freedom to be able
to do that the president has come out
the last couple weeks and
and really talked about we should be
wearing masks when we're in these tight
quarters
i know you support the president is this
something that you don't support the
president on
is his new push he said wearing masks
is that's patriotic do you not support
the president and what he's uh
he's uh asking americans to do right now
oh i absolutely support president trump
i'm i'm
probably one of his greatest supporters
as a candidate for congress this
election cycle
and i've also heard president trump say
that he doesn't believe in mass mandates
and so that's that's my belief also um
but yes i do i support president trump
um
i've been supporting him since before i
voted for him in 2016.
i'm also a max donor to president trump
and i'm
happy to be able to say that i'm i'm
blessed thankfully
financially to be able to do that and i
support him greatly because
we really need him in there and i'm very
much going to be working hard to get him
reelected in 2020.
um i asked you this question and i know
this is one of the story lines around
around your campaign uh i asked this
question during the debate about q anon
and there have been
several stories written there's one here
in politico there's one here and cnn
they'll link you to q and on i know
there's a there's a youtube video out
there that i've seen
that you talk about q anon at length
i asked you during the debate yes or no
are you a follower of q anon and
and you didn't really say yes or no so
i'm going to ask you that again
yes or no are you a follower of q anon
i'm i'm just like millions of people
here in our country
and then millions of people around the
world that
are are very much concerned about
a deep state in our government and it's
it's something that you hear talked
about every day
i mean people talk about it from rush
limbaugh to sean
hannity you hear people even
commentators on the left talking about
corruption in our government and i'm i'm
one of those
ordinary people that i started watching
things
and and started seeing on the news
non-stop
russian collusion russian collusion but
yet there were other stories
that were also easy to find um
that were showing that it wasn't true
and so
you know i'm i'm just someone that i
don't really like
uh news or media being so slanted
um you know a lot of our media and our
in our country is very left-leaning
and um i would rather the news just be
the news
and i've been very disappointed like
so many people that the the obama gate
has not been reported that the abuse um
the spying that happened with carter
page uh george
papadopoulos um the unmasking of general
flynn
and how much he's been through in his
family uh
the non-stop russian collusion
that has just been force-fed to the
american people on the news
and um there's just a lot of people like
me that got really tired of that
and so it's easy to look at other
sources
but i'll tell you what you know i've
been i've been trying to explain this to
people
the only person that i truly believe in
that i've never met
in in my life but i but i know him very
well and that's jesus
and i'm a big believer there and you
know jesus is my savior
and i'm a believer in god and um that's
the one source that i look to for truth
yeah i really didn't get a yes or no
there i did hear a lot of interesting
things and
that and that in the video you say quote
cue as a patriot
do you believe that is that what you
believe i've only ever seen
patriotic sentiment coming out of
that source and other sources you know
there's a lot of censorship
unfortunately from big tech on social
media
and this is the type of censorship that
americans are so tired of
and that is a particular source that
gets censored tremendously i think
twitter
has just announced recently last week
that it'll be removing
anyone that associates himself with with
qanon
um but yet there's never been any
dangerous rhetoric
coming out of of people like that but
we've seen
a lot of violence coming out of sources
like antifa
blm um we also see on the twitter
platform we see
terrorists from foreign countries uh you
know we see
every kind of threat possible we've seen
threats to president
trump's life even a couple years ago
barron trump being
being threatened that he should be
thrown in a cage with pedophiles
but yet big tech censorship wants to
remove people
that just talk about loving their
country and just talk about wanting to
see justice
for real crimes that have actually
happened and have been revealed um
a lot through the house judiciary
committee hearings
and and it's very important um i don't
to me
it doesn't matter what political party
it is but if we have corrupt people
in our government that are leading and
holding powerful positions
they need to be held accountable and um
these things are real issues and they
matter a lot to people
unfortunately i didn't get an interview
request from politico and
cnn and all these people that have
attacked me and labeled me
and you know i think that's unfortunate
well we're giving you the space today to
tell us what you believe
and and i think that's important for if
you're going to ask voters
for their vote they need to understand
what you believe and
so on that note there are other comments
that you've made
that we all know about you've lost some
support
among endorsements from republican
leaders you know
steve scalise called some of the things
that you said uh
disgusting i believe is the word that he
used um
i think we know the the the statements
we're talking about racially
you know insensitive statements
do you regret saying those things do you
do you have anything to say to people
who may have
heard what you said because those videos
are out there too who may have been
hurt by what you said you have do you
have any regrets saying those things
um do you do you want to like do you
mean like do i regret saying that i'm
against radical islam
no i don't regret saying i'm against
radical islam it's a threat to our
country and it's a threat all over the
world
do i regret saying that i don't believe
people
that are followers of sharia law and
sharia law is a very
extremist um extremist form and
if people truly follow sharia law these
are the people that
you know declared jihad and they're they
these are people like in iran that chant
death to america death to israel i don't
believe that people that truly subscribe
to sharia law
can hold a position in our government
because it is completely
it's not aligned with our constitution
because sharia law
says that they can't believe in anything
else but you know
above sharia law they have to follow
sharia law which treats women
um not equal it puts women much further
down under men
it says that non-believers people that
aren't believers
in islam have to be taxed and treated
differently
and that's not how our government is set
up so no
i don't regret saying those things and
those aren't racially
insensitive those are anti-radical islam
and and that type of extremism
and religion is against our government
and against our american beliefs
and against against many people in our
country and this isn't something that's
radical for me to say this is how most
americans feel
and so when i talk have these
conversations with voters every day
they agree with me 100 and they're
thankful that i'm saying them
because people are tired really tired of
political political
correctness and government and you know
people are already
ready to have people in congress that
are actually going to fight for the
american people
put america first put our constitution
first
protect our freedoms and and not bow
down to the rest of the world
um or or something that you know may be
considered insensitive
as far as steve scalise this is the same
man that voted
against martin luther king's day he
voted against it
so i'm not sure how he can um
you know put me down and call me that uh
as far as there was
i think i was accused of being oh i was
in a picture with some
you know i take hundreds and hundreds of
pictures i'm not kidding you
i don't know how many pictures i've
taken with people and a lot of the time
there's someone that just came up and
said hey can i take a picture with you
well it just so happened i was in a
group picture with
a man that i do not even know i have
never
met him but he came to an event that he
came out of his district and came into
our district
to an event um so it wasn't his event
and
um was in a picture with me and then all
of a sudden
cnn and politico and all the fake news
media and the atlanta journal
constitution painted me with him
and his beliefs and i i don't have
anything to do with the guy
i don't and i have never had any
problems or accusations like politico
and cnn have launched at me
in my personal life in my work life and
my church life
and with any of the you know friends
that know me so
these aren't issues um but this is fake
news and it's unfortunate that that
exists
you said this in the video that i saw
the generations of black and hispanic
men
do you want to know what holds them down
gangs
being in gangs dealing drugs that's what
holds them down
yeah i just saw a video it's funny you
brought this up you know colonel west
was actually talking about the same
issue and
um gangs and drugs are are a
massive problem and um unfortunately
they exist in inner cities and
it's unfortunately that it that will
hold you back in your life if you join a
gang
and you're on drugs i mean it could be
me or you it doesn't matter what your
skin color is
but unfortunately that will really hurt
you in your life
and cause you a lot of problems now
let's be clear here we have covered
uh gang violence in chattanooga through
the years
i don't think anyone is is is saying
that
gang violence and these things aren't
issues but the idea that that
is solely an issue that that there is
hope that's that's
uh in your words holding them down
really doesn't look at the entire
picture here have you talked to
black men hispanic men in your district
about
what they what they perceive are
their challenges yes as a matter of fact
so i own a
commercial construction company we do
work all over the southeast
approximately 40 percent of the work we
do is
in you know low-income housing
inner cities and so i'm i'm very
familiar i don't live in chattanooga i
don't live in tennessee
i live in georgia i've lived here all my
life but we do do
work all over the southeast so we have
done
amazing work rebuilding these
communities we do
school supply drives backpack drives we
have built
daycare centers after school centers
donated laptops to these communities
we've worked hand-in-hand with people
and
you know this isn't a racial statement
to say that gangs and drugs hold people
down
and it's not a racial statement to say
that
it's unfortunate that black population
and hispanic population have been
plagued with these issues
and that's not a racial statement that's
a factual statement
haven't you said also that racism
doesn't exist isn't there a video out
there
showing you say that there's a video
of a woman that came and was yelling at
yelling at me and attacking me
at a um it was a gop event yes
so there here's what i was saying and
you only
probably saw a clip of that just like
you saw clips of these other videos
so sure i'd be happy to you know god
created us
all equal think thankfully and our
constitution affirms that and
we live this is the greatest country in
the world where no matter what color you
are no matter what place in life you
start out
you can become something successful you
can
and it's incredible america is the
greatest opportunities
me as a woman i feel like i'm one of the
most blessed women in the world
i've been a successful business owner i
have a college degree i graduated with a
bachelor's degree in business from the
university of georgia
you know same as same as men i'm able to
walk equally
i'm now a leading candidate for congress
in this runoff and i'm proud to be a mom
who's been able to raise my children and
raise them in my in my christian faith
and that's equality you see that's
equality and
america offers that to every single
person and
we our country went through an
incredible time in the civil rights
movement and those leaders that did that
work
um they did something incredible and we
just lost john lewis
last week so he was one of the giants in
the movement
but yes here in america you know what
racism is it's hate within someone's
heart
and it's unfortunate that exists it can
go any direction
and it's sad but here in america it
doesn't have to exist unless someone
chooses that
that's not something that i choose in my
life i don't
ever have those problems in my daily
life i never have
and so america is a place of equality
where racism doesn't have to exist and
that's what i was trying to say to that
woman
while she was yelling at me the whole
black lives matter
and they don't care about black lives
they only care about politicizing
whose black lives they think matter if
they cared about black lives they would
care about the millions of black babies
that are aborted
they would care about black police
officers lives they would care about
black on black crime
which is very tragic and they would care
about uh there was a man a trump
supporter
that was gunned down in the streets
because he was holding a trump sign
and he was a black man and you know so
there's
those are the really sad issues that are
existing and i don't believe
in here in america that anyone's
identity
should define them because like i said
our constitution declares we
we are we're equal it confirms how god
created us
and and that's why i say america is the
greatest country in the world it's the
land of opportunity
where anyone can achieve no matter what
and
i think that's a message that you how
can you argue with that i don't think
anyone
can argue with that but you do
understand there are people in this
country
um who have not had an equal footing
have not had the same opportunities as
everyone else
we heard a story yesterday uh alvin
jackson
lives in cleveland tennessee he um
grew up in mcminn county during
segregation right
um he told me stories of couldn't go
inside a restaurant and sit down and eat
he had gets food eaten parking lot
right um right that's something that
people who are living
in this country right now went through
and you have to acknowledge
that um that affected them um
that that's a generational historic
thing that happened in our country
of people who are still here um that
affected them in a profound way
um absolutely this man this man again
after that
68 was was drafted into the vietnam war
um
went over there which we know vietnam
drafted disproportionately if you were
lower income and you got a draft notice
you were much more likely to go
as opposed to other people in our
society served our country now he's
fighting cancer
um from agent orange exposure right so
so there are things in our country right
uh
the fact that there were more than a
million african-americans who served in
world war
ii who didn't have access to the gi bill
when white
uh soldiers had access uh the federal
housing administration so many
things in our country who that have um
uh kept african-americans from building
generational wealth
that that has that are still issues in
our country i mean you understand that
right
absolutely i was just talking about that
i was just saying to you
that thankfully in the civil rights
movement these
giants stepped forward they were so
brave and we've seen so much changes
since then so
the issues you're speaking of um i was
born in 1974
so i don't know when you were born but
but most of that happened
before i was born and and i'm thinking i
can't see your face so
i'm sure that was before you were born
as well and
we're about a year apart in age so we're
right here together yeah
okay well i you know i'm so proud of our
country
for coming through those times and and
you're right
that's you're right there were horrible
disadvantages
that is that is a fact no one can deny
that
i i my dad was drafted he was one of
those guys that was drafted
and um went to vietnam also uh
the veterans group that i i see almost
every single month
they're combat veterans vietnam veterans
and they suffer
tremendous health consequences from
agent orange
also and that's not a skin color issue
that's just a
terrible thing that happened to so many
of them in that war
and um no you're right and you know
here's the deal
there there's circumstances in life that
make life really hard and and that is
that's a fact of living
but what i'm grateful for is the fact
that we've worked so hard
to make equality a real thing
and so ben carson ben carson is a great
example
dr ben carson who ran for president
during
during 2015 in the primary and now he's
the director of hud
and he does an amazing job you know he
was
he was raised i believe by a single mom
and they were
they he grew up on welfare and and grew
up in very poor circumstances
uh pursued an education and as an
african-american man um and he's gone on
to be
an incredible brain surgeon and now look
look at his achievements
and so yes it's it's they're
very difficult circumstances but it can
be that way across the board for anyone
and america is the only country on
on this planet i fully believe it where
we have the opportunities and we have
the freedoms to overcome those things
and it takes hard work and so like i
said
i believe racism exists within people's
hearts and it's hate
and that that is something that it
doesn't really always fall into being a
a white issue or a black issue it can
fall into any race and and any religion
um in any people group and and that's
but it's it's defined by people hating
one another based on an identity that's
not something that
that i have a have an issue with and
that's not something that most people i
know
have an issue with uh thankfully and and
i'm proud of our country
for working to overcome it you've been
very generous with your time but i don't
want to
to disrespect that so let me ask you one
more question and we'll uh
we'll say goodbye here you mentioned
veterans and there is an issue
going on right now in washington dc with
service members
that i hear from military folks a lot
that have a lot of questions around
and it's it's the russian bounty issue
and and uh we there were reports that
that
that that information was in briefings
that the president never saw
but still we citizens have known about
this for weeks and we still haven't
heard anything about sanctions
or anything like that regarding the
russian bounties oh
if you're elected to congress what would
you push for
um as far as getting to the bottom of
what is going on there
and and then holding whoever is
responsible accountable
well that's an issue i'm going to have
to read more on um
that's it's not a story that i have
followed as closely i've seen it a
little bit
but as you know i've been working very
hard on this campaign and my runoff
so i'll just have to be honest with you
i'll have to read more about it to be
able to tell you my stance
of course um you know my first position
to say
is we always want to put america first
and to put
all of our military first and put
america's interests first
and so i can assure you that'll be my
position there but i'll just have to
read
more about it all right marjorie green
thank you for your time i really
appreciate it
okay thank you and you have a good day
