Marjorie Taylor Greene tells Bill Maher she believes extraterrestrials are demons | Marjorie Taylor Greene

Republican US House member Marjorie Taylor Greene has said she believes in demons, surmising that they might be aliens who fell from heaven, and claims to have been unaware that key figures in the antisemitic space lasers conspiracy she floated were Jewish.

She made those bizarre remarks as a guest on Friday on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher after winning some fans among Democrats who once loathed her – yet had come to appreciate how the far-right Georgia representative had recently broken with Republicans on various issues. Those include healthcare, Gaza, the federal government shutdown that began on 1 October and the handling of documents pertaining to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was friends with Donald Trump before the latter man won two presidencies.

Greene’s appearance on Maher’s show perhaps made evident the ideological distance between the congresswoman – who has conspicuously avoided directly criticizing Trump himself – and some of her newer, cross-aisle admirers.

Maher on Friday asked another of his on-air guests, film-maker Dan Farah, to discuss his new documentary, The Age of Disclosure, and how it explores the way some senior US military officials apparently theorize earnestly that “demons” may be responsible for what some colloquially refer to as unidentified flying objects, or UFOs.

The Real Time host, who is generally considered to be left-leaning, subsequently asked those on the show: “Do you think demons and the devil are real?”

Greene, who was first elected to Congress in 2020, confidently answered: “Absolutely. I’m a Bible-believing Christian. And I believe those could be fallen angels.”

As Maher replied: “Fallen angels? The aliens are fallen angels?” Greene continued: “That’s possible – I think that’s what they could be. That’s what makes sense in my worldview.”

The Fifth Column podcast host Michael Moynihan was also participating in the discussion, and Maher called on him to say whether he agreed with Greene. “No,” Moynihan said. “I’m sorry.”

At another point in the show, Maher invited Greene to revisit her infamous 2018 social media screed positing that wildfires that had devastated California were ignited by a laser beam from space under the control of the Rothschild banking dynasty.

The progressive watchdog Media Matters uncovered that post weeks into Greene’s first congressional term. And her colleagues at the time voted to remove her from her House committee assignments, with the Rothschild family having repeatedly been subjected to antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Greene on Friday declared to Maher that she initially “didn’t even know the Rothschilds were Jewish”.

“Before politics … I [did] not know much of any of this stuff,” Greene said. “I never even said the word ‘Jewish’ in the … post.”

Maher pointed out that “‘Rothschild’, to a lot of people, is almost synonymous with the word ‘Jewish’”.

Greene replied: “I had no idea … Now I know it’s Jewish.”

Amid laughter and applause, Maher retorted: “Right. Well, now we know … That’s what I’m here for – to make sure that people in Congress know what the fuck you’re talking about.”