New York Daily News

Republican ranter calls Kwanzaa ‘BS’

- BY DAVE GOLDINER

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene denounced Kwanzaa as a “fake religion” just as millions of Black people start to celebrate the weeklong holiday.

The far-right Georgia lawmaker berated the national College Republican­s for “pandering and BS” after the GOP group tweeted a seemingly innocuous happy holiday message.

“Stop. It’s a fake religion created by a psychopath,” Greene said. “People are tired of pandering and BS.”

She was apparently deriding Kwanzaa founder Prof. Maulana Karenga, who was convicted of felony assault in the 1960s in what he says was a politicall­y motivated prosecutio­n spurred by his involvemen­t in Black nationalis­t politics.

Greene (photo) suggested that the College Republican­s should avoid political correctnes­s if it wants to galvanize the conservati­ve base of the GOP.

“You aren’t bringing in new voters, you are turning them away,” she added.

The College Republican­s, which bills itself as a home for young conservati­ves, did not directly respond to Greene’s criticism about the tweet, which misspelled the name of the holiday as “Kwanza.”

On Monday, the GOP group instead retweeted a “happy Kwanzaa to all those celebratin­g” message from her fellow right-wing Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida.

It also sought to show that other Republican­s feel the same by retweeting past Kwanzaa messages from the national GOP and state parties in Ohio and Texas — as well as former President Donald Trump’s tweet of his own “Happy Kwanzaa” message early in his administra­tion.

Greene notably did not criticize her political hero for the greeting despite finding fault with others.

Some Republican groups seek to highlight putative Republican values like personal responsibi­lity, faith and prosperity to reach out to traditiona­lly GOP-skeptical groups like Blacks, Latinos, gays and Jews.

But hardcore white Christian conservati­ves like Greene consider such outreach amounts to the watering down of their message to the base of GOP voters.

Kwanzaaa, which lasts for seven days, is a holiday festival, not a religion as Greene claims.

It was created in 1966 as a way to allow Black people worldwide to celebrate their common African roots.

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