Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ‘Bomb’ Was Actually a Bag of Sand 

Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed that Mexican drug cartels were “planting bombs” on the U.S. side of the border on Wednesday. Greene shared an image of the supposed explosive device on Twitter. There is, however, a major hole in her claim: Border Patrol officials say the object was nothing more than a wad of sand and duct tape. 

During a Wednesday hearing with U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, Greene questioned the chief regarding reports she had heard indicating that Border Patrol had recovered explosives in “no man’s land” areas of the border. Ortiz initially indicated that briefings he’d been privy to regarding those kinds of materials were typically confidential, and declined to provide details. 

After Greene repeatedly belabored the claim on Twitter, Ortiz responded with a clarification. “It was alleged [during the hearing] that Agents found an explosive device near the border,” Ortiz wrote. “During a Jan. briefing, leadership was notified that Agents found a duct-taped ball filled with sand that wasn’t deemed a threat to agents/public.” 

Despite the Border Patrol Chief, as well as Fox News, debunking the claim that cartels were planting tennis ball-sized bombs at the border, Greene continued to insist that someone—not her of course—wasn’t being truthful. 

“If the device in question was just filled with sand then why would Chief Ortiz tell me during his testimony that he was briefed about it in a SCIF and couldn’t comment on classified information,” Greene wrote on Twitter. “They only brief us about dangerous things in classified briefings.” In a separate tweet, the congresswoman cited unnamed sources to bolster her claims that agents who found the device “were told later that it was some sort of explosive, not filled with sand.” 

While Greene’s trip to the border was overshadowed by her online squabbling with Border Patrol, she did manage to squeeze in a renewed call for the impeachment of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. And while the congresswoman is happy to lob attacks via social media, the only bombs we’ve found are in her imagination.