With every pull-up, power snatch, and hotel-room burpee, Marjorie Taylor Greene used CrossFit to build her brand, from gym owner to the House of Representatives’ most visible far-right conspiracy theorist. Before and during her political rise, CrossFit’s headquarters ignored Greene’s existence and her praise of the company’s workout programs — until now.

CrossFit for the first time disavowed Greene after BuzzFeed News asked in February about her history of calling for violence against political enemies, support for QAnon, attempts to undermine the 2020 presidential election, and amplification of other dangerous and deceptive nonsense. “CrossFit supports respectful fact-based political dialogue to address our common challenges, and we strongly oppose the loathsome and dangerous lies attributed to Ms. Greene,” Andrew Weinstein, a CrossFit spokesperson, told BuzzFeed News.

It started with Greene using her time as an affiliate gym owner to build her credibility as a small business owner. Then she asked for campaign donations and invited at least one gym member to donor events when she launched her congressional bid. Now, in Washington, she points to her time as an athlete and CrossFit affiliate owner to push her political agenda — like her viral hotel room workout in Washington, DC.

Though Greene entwined herself with the brand at nearly every step of her controversial political growth, CrossFit is only speaking out as it struggles to publicly account for its own accusations of racism, bigotry, and ignoring science during a lethal pandemic in its community of affiliates.

“What is wrong with you? Seriously, do you not have anything better to do?” Greene’s communications director, Nick Dyer, said when asked for comment.

CrossFit has attempted to revamp its image — but without alienating a large swath of its supporters — after former CEO and owner Greg Glassman resigned in June 2020. That’s when BuzzFeed News published his leaked call with affiliate owners where he questioned why the company would mourn George Floyd’s killing and where he spread vicious racist and QAnon-adjacent conspiracies. In its wake, CrossFit athletes announced that they would boycott the brand’s marquee event, the CrossFit Games, unless new leadership were installed. Gym owners canceled their affiliations and changed their names.

Since CrossFit was founded, it has been a welcome space for conservatives, gaining early traction with law enforcement and military members. Under Glassman, the company’s brand was built on a “libertarian” and machismo philosophy and fostered a tough culture. CrossFit’s statement criticizing the views of a pro-military Republican member of Congress shocked long-term members.

“It ends up by saying we don’t support this lady, which is a pretty hard stance to take especially for CrossFit being as tied to it is to the military and generally the conservative movement,” a member of CrossFit’s new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council told BuzzFeed News after hearing the statement.

One current CrossFit affiliate owner, who asked to remain anonymous, told BuzzFeed News that the national brand’s strong association with conservative-leaning groups, including some who remain supportive of Glassman or align with Greene’s political beliefs such as QAnon, had made CrossFit headquarters reluctant to publicly criticize Greene.

“There’s a huge amount of people who are silently fine with how everything is. Marjorie Taylor Greene? Fine,” the owner said. “We’ll just ignore her and hold our nose.”

The affiliate owner BuzzFeed News spoke with thinks the national reluctance has to do with an awareness that there are like-minded customers who agree with Greene.

“I see all of the manipulations of indoctrination into something,” the owner said. The person pointed to a 2015 study from two former Harvard Divinity School students who compared CrossFit to religion and wrote that people were turning to the gym instead of churches for community. It’s an association that former CEO Glassman embraced in interviews.

“The large majority of CrossFit are disenfranchised people who are left out,” the current affiliate owner explained. “They meet friends and like-minded people, they work hard, suffer together, they party together, they likely drink together — there’s a huge hookup problem — that’s widespread, that’s the norm. That’s very much the ethos: You find something, you work hard, you learn the secret knowledge, and you’re accepted. That’s what I mean when they’re susceptible to QAnon.” CrossFit didn’t reply when asked for comment about this characterization.

To be clear, CrossFit has tens of thousands of members and, of course, not everyone shares the same opinions and belief systems. Weinstein, the CrossFit spokesperson, denied BuzzFeed News’ request to speak with new CEO Eric Roza or Trish Gerlitz, the new VP for culture and inclusion, about Greene’s association with the brand. “Ms. Greene sold her gym long before the current leadership team took over CrossFit, and the company has no relationship with her,” he said.

“That’s just such a weak statement,” said Alyssa Royse, a former affiliate owner who ended her gym’s CrossFit affiliation after questioning Glassman about why CrossFit wasn’t speaking out in support of the widespread anti-police brutality protests in the summer of 2020. CrossFit has given Greene “tacit approval,” Royse wrote in a blog posted to her gym’s website in mid-February. “Yes, they can and should distance themselves from her,” Royse wrote, “she’s still posting her workouts and talking about the gym she no longer owns.”

In many ways, CrossFit’s current dilemma of trying to shake off its association with an insurgent far-right and conspiracy-minded wing is reflective of the Republican Party at large.