COVID vaccine encouragers should be greeted with guns - MTG

Video reportedly leaked from a Republican fundraiser held by the Alabama Federation of Republican Women in Dothan, Alabama, showed a crowd cheering after Greene stated that "you lucky people here in Alabama, might get a knock on your door because I hear Alabama might be one of the most unvaccinated states in the nation."

The press was asked to leave the event before Greene began speaking.

"Joe Biden wants to come talk to you guys. He's going be sending one of his police state friends to your front door to knock on the door, take down your name, your address, your family member's names, your phone numbers, your cell phone numbers, probably ask for your social security number and whether you've taken the vaccine or not," said Greene in the video shared by political radio and YouTube host David Parkman.

"What they don't know is, in the South we all love our second amendment rights and we're not real big on strangers showing up on our front door, are we?" added the Georgia representative. "They might not like the welcome they get."

The second amendment mandates the right to bear arms.

In response to inquiries about the leaked video, Greene's spokesman, Nick Dyer, told NBC that "These claims are ridiculous and yet another conspiracy theory from the left," although he did not specify what claims he was referring to.

It is unclear who exactly Greene is referring to when she mentions people showing up at front doors.

In a speech last month, Biden stated, "we need to go to community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, and oftentimes door to door, literally knocking on doors, to get help for the remaining people protected from the virus."

Local volunteers and organizations in some communities have begun going door-to-door to explain about the vaccines and how to get them, but these volunteers are not federal workers.

In either case, threatening individuals encouraging vaccination with weapons could likely garner legal action. Even Alabama's "Stand Your Ground" law only allows deadly force to be used when someone forces their way into a dwelling and poses an immediate threat of physical harm, injury or death. Such action would need to be proved to be legally justified.

Assaulting or intimidating federal employees can garner a fine or imprisonment. Using a deadly or dangerous weapon in such an act can garner a prison sentence of up to 20 years.

Republican politicians have strongly opposed Biden's door-to-door comments, with Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert saying Biden "has deployed his Needle Nazis to Mesa County" in a tweet and other Republican politicians claiming that door-to-door efforts could escalate as far as federal workers taking guns and bibles.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki stressed in a press briefing after the speech in July that Biden was referring to "local trusted messengers," stressing "they are not federal government employees. They are volunteers. They are clergy.  They are trusted voices in communities who are playing this role and door knocking."

Only about 50% of Alabama residents are vaccinated. Infection rates in the southern state have been steadily rising since last month, with over 1,400 COVID patients in Alabama hospitals and 400 in the ICU, according to local news source WBRC. President of Alabama Hospital Association, Dr. Don Williamson, told WBRC that only 207 patients were hospitalized on the first of July, saying that hospitals have seen a "seven-fold increase just in the last month."

Greene also complained about Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, saying that "we didn't vote for him" and claiming that he funded COVID-19 in a lab in Wuhan. The claim has been spread by Republican lawmakers, including Senator Rand Paul, which alleges that US funds were used to fund research in Wuhan to make viruses more infectious and more deadly.

Fauci has denied the claims, saying that research that received US funding was evaluated and found not to fall under the definition of "gain-of-function," meaning when an organism develops new abilities.

Greene has come under fire for opposing COVID-19 regulations in the past, including comparing the regulations to Nazi Germany.

In July, just three weeks after having apologized for such comparisons, Greene stated concerning the Biden administration's vaccination efforts that "people have a choice, they don't need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations."

The “brownshirts” – also known as the SA, or Sturmabteilung – were the paramilitary group that facilitated Adolf Hitler’s initial rise to power in the lead up to the Nazis' rise to power.