Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Burning Man Flooding an Act of God

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has claimed that flooding at the Burning Man festival was an act of God.

The annual gathering attracts almost 80,000 people to the Nevada desert to dance, make art and enjoy being part of a self-sufficient temporary community. This year's event began on August 27 and was scheduled to run through Monday.

But tens of thousands were left stranded after flooding from storms swept through the desert, turning it into a sea of sticky mud. After a death was reported, organizers closed the festival to vehicles and ordered attendees to shelter in place. Authorities on Sunday said the person had died during the "rain event" in the Black Rock Desert, but provided few details. An investigation is underway.

Greene, a Republican from Georgia who has a history of promoting conspiracy theories, said on Alex Jones' Info Wars show on Sunday night that the people stranded in the desert are "basically probably being brainwashed that climate change is the cause of all of it... and it's going to destroy the Earth."

When Jones claimed that festival-goers "did a mock sacrifice" and then it "flooded with these tornadoes," Greene suggested the extreme weather was a punishment from God because of it.

"God has a way of of making sure everyone knows who God is," she said. "I'll say that about that."

The road closures and orders came before the burning of a large wooden structure called "The Man" on the festival's penultimate night took place. Organizers said on Sunday night that the burning is scheduled to take place on Monday morning.

On their website, they said they did not yet know when the roads would "be dry enough for RVs or vehicles to navigate safely," but they said vehicles could depart by late Monday if weather conditions improved.

On Jones' show, Greene also claimed that attendees will spread climate change propaganda when they return home.

"It's the same thing, same way they launch any kind of movement," she said. "After this is over and Burning Man and these 75,000 people dispersed and they go back home, they're gonna have these stories to tell and how terrible [it] is and how we have to do everything possible to stop climate change. It's caused by humans and it's carbon."

Some also took to social media to claim Burning Man attendees were being punished by God.

"Wow God unleashed a plague and a flood of rain over the satanic ritual "burning man" in the desert that all of the elites attend? You don't say," Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab, a fringe social media platform that has become a breeding ground for white nationalists and other extremists, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"They're all blaming climate change for the rain. In reality it's prob God punishing them all for their degeneracy," another person wrote on X.

However, some questioned how Greene would explain extreme weather in other places, including in her home state.

"What would she say about the hurricane that just went through Georgia?" one person asked.

Newsweek has contacted Greene's office for further comment via email.

Update 9/4/23, 4.15 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add additional information.