Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was mocked after she mistakenly claimed that "6 billion" people illegally crossed the US border during Joe Biden's time in the Oval Office.
Ms Greene — who recently called for the dissolution of the United States — was hammering Mr Biden on immigration policies and for spending time in Ukraine over the last week.
Her talking points echo those of other Maga politicians, who have been using Mr Biden's Ukraine trip to claim that he is ignoring domestic issues like the Ohio train derailment and the border.
"$113 Billion has been appropriated to Ukraine in just 1 yr," Ms Greene tweeted. "Trump's wall would have only cost $22 billion, but Congress refused to fund it. 6 Billion people illegally crossed our border since Biden took office, but Ukraine's border is the only border that matters to Washington."
A report from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, found that Mr Trump's border wall was ineffective at curbing illegal border crossings. The report found that illegal crossings actually became more frequent beginning after October 2020. Ms Greene also failed to note that Donald Trump originally promised to make Mexico pay for the wall, making Congressional funding unnecessary.
Ms Greene's claim that six billion people crossed the border illegally is wildly incorrect. The population of the world is eight billion, meaning a majority of the planet's humans would have had to have crossed the border since 2021. The entire US population is only 332 million.
The Congreswoman quickly deleted and reposted the tweet with a correction to "6 million."
However the tweet was up long enough for commenters to screenshot and pass around the image along with their criticisms.
"MTG tweeted that since Biden took office, 6 billion people have crossed the border illegally," Paul Rudnick, a writer, tweeted. "Also: - Lauren Boebert stole her Friends lunchbox - 50 trillion Chinese spy balloons have been disguised as decorations at birthday parties - The Jewish space lasers bleached her hair."
Another commenter, author and psychologist Dr David Lustig, broke down the mathematics needed for Ms Greene's initial claim to have occurred.
"MTG humiliated herself by stating that 6 billion people (75% of earth’s population) came across the U.S. border from Mexico," he wrote. "For perspective, that’s: 8 million people per day; 333,333 people per hour; 5,555 people per minute; 24-hours a day, 365 days a year, non-stop for 2 years."
Some conservatives defended Ms Greene, noting it was likely just a typo, and insisting that her criticism was valid.
"MTG said 6 Billion when she meant 6 Million… but please Twitter Dems, draw more attention to that absolute dereliction of duty by your Biden admin," one user commented.
Regardless of how the mistake was made, Ms Greene's comment, even corrected, is still dubious at best. US Border Patrol and Field Operations have said they've had millions of encounters with undocumented migrants trying to cross the border during the Biden administration, but there is no data available on the successful number of illegal crossings, meaning her six million number is, in the most gracious reading, conjecture.
