Representative Clay Fuller, the Georgia Republican who replaced Marjorie Taylor Greene after she resigned from Congress, has been ridiculed on social media after claiming his state was named after the first U.S. president.
Fuller said Georgia was “named after George Washington, who quite literally invented freedom,” in a video posted Sunday afternoon on X. Several people were quick to point out the state was actually named for England’s King George II.
Lawfare editor Anna Bower wrote on X: “There’s, uh, a lot going on in this video. But perhaps the most notable is that the congressman from Georgia appears to believe the state was named after George Washington. It wasn’t—it was named after King George II.”
Political commentator Keith Olbermann noted that Georgia was established in 1732, the same year George Washington was born.
“Thinks Georgia was named after a two-month old infant? My god he’s somehow actually dumber than he looks,” Olbermann wrote on X.
Others suggested Fuller’s video was a joke. “Baffled at the amount of folks who didn’t get it lol,” an X user wrote. “Honestly gets more amusing every time someone reacts negatively.”
The Independent has contacted Fuller’s office for comment. Fuller’s spokesperson previously told USA Today the clip was “obviously satirical” and that “no reasonable person would think he was serious.”
In the video, Fuller recounted how his AC unit supposedly went out during a hotel stay in Maryland and he went to the front desk for help. There, a staff member reportedly told him an “AOC Green New Deal thing” causes the AC units to shut off if there’s no movement in the room.
The hotel worker then explained he could switch the AC unit to a “VIP setting” to override that function, according to the congressman.
“I was offended, and I said, ‘Hey, I don’t understand, I should already be in VIP mode because I’m from Georgia,’” Fuller said.
Fuller went on to claim his state was named after George Washington, “who quite literally invented freedom.” He also said Georgia is the “birthplace” of Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Gunner Stockton and Atlanta Braves player Ronald Acuna Jr. While Stockton was born in Tiger, Georgia, Acuna was born in La Guaira, Venezuela.
Fuller continued: “So I just want to say to the state of Maryland, I know that y’all are newer to the union and that you don’t have a football team, and if Gunner Stockton was born here, he’d play some fake sport like lacrosse. But AC has quite literally saved billions of lives, socialism has killed billions of lives.”
He added: “So as we celebrate our 250th anniversary, let’s not be like Europe, Maryland. Let’s double down on freedom, let’s double down on liberty, and let’s double down on being awesome.”
Fuller defeated Democrat Shawn Harris in a special election earlier this month following Greene’s resignation. The Republican formerly served as the district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit in northwestern Georgia and was endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Greene, who was once among Trump’s fiercest MAGA allies, left Congress after a public falling out with the president last year over the release of the Epstein files. Since then, Greene has regularly criticized Trump and the Republican party, while the president has labeled her a “traitor.”
