Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, leaves her Capitol office on February 4, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images
The House will vote on Thursday to remove Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments, forcing her Republican colleagues to take an official position on the congresswoman who expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.
The vote on Greene, who refused to publicly give up her relentless criticism of a laundry list of extreme comments and conspiracy claims she made before taking office, marks a turning point within the Republican Party, which struggles to set after Donald Trump’s presidency.
In a lengthy meeting on Wednesday night, the House Republican caucus voted in a secret vote on whether Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., Should retain her leadership role after she voted to impeach Trump for inciting the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol. Cheney survived the vote by a margin of 145-61, NBC News reported.
During the meeting, Greene, R-Ga., Repudiated some of his most incendiary positions, reported NBC, including his support for the strange pro-Trump conspiracy QAnon and his reported suggestion that some school shootings had been staged. Greene’s speech at the meeting was met with applause, sources told NBC.
Greene was also criticized recently after a CNN report showing that she liked several Facebook comments in 2018 and 2019, calling for the execution of prominent Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
The media also reported that Greene in 2018 suggested that California forest fires may have been caused by laser beams.
In public, Greene remained defiant, declaring on Wednesday that “we owe them no excuses” and “we will never back down”, referring to criticism from Democrats and the media. She also often proclaims a fundraiser amid the furor.
Democrats demanded that Greene be expelled from the Education and Labor Committee and the Budget Committee, warning that they would take action if nothing was done by their own party.
Republicans hoped to avoid a vote on the resolution. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Has proposed that the Republican Party remove Greene from his role on the Education Committee if she could remain on the Budget Committee, a source told NBC News. Democrats rejected that offer.
Majority leader in the House, Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Said on Wednesday that after he spoke to McCarthy, “it is clear that there is no alternative to holding a plenary vote on the resolution to remove Rep. Greene your committee assignments. “
The resolution was passed by the House Rules Committee after a hearing later that day on the objections of Republican members who discussed the process and warned that it set a dangerous precedent for a majority party to rescind a minority member’s placements in the committee.
Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, D-Mass., Countered that McCarthy “did not want or was unable to do the right thing”, forcing Democrats to act.
“When a person encourages talking about shooting a member in the head, he should lose the right to serve on any committee,” said McGovern. “If this isn’t the end result, I don’t know where the hell the end result is.”
Most Republicans at the hearing refused to defend Greene’s comments. Republican Tom Cole of Oklahoma said he found his statements “deeply offensive”. But Republican MP Brian Babin said of Greene: “This is her first month in office. She deserves the opportunity to do her duties.”
Greene says he recently spoke to Trump and has his support. Trump, who lost his run against President Joe Biden but never formally conceded, maintains overwhelming support from Republicans even after the riot at U.S. Capitol Hill by his supporters, which left five dead.
But other prominent Republicans gave Greene less support. Earlier this week, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Criticized Greene’s “crazy lies and conspiracy theories”, calling them “cancer for the Republican Party and our country”.
McCarthy, in a statement on Wednesday afternoon, said he “unequivocally” condemns Greene’s many controversial comments about “school shootings, political violence and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories”.
He continued to criticize Democrats for sanctioning Greene, accusing the majority party of a party takeover.
McCarthy said he explained to Greene during a meeting on Tuesday night that “as members of Congress, we have a responsibility to maintain ourselves to a higher standard”.
“Marjorie acknowledged this in our conversation. I trust your word,” said McCarthy in his statement.
Democrats, for their part, seem eager to introduce Greene as the Republican Party poster boy.
McCarthy chose to make House Republicans “the party of conspiracy theories and QAnon,” Pelosi said in a statement on Wednesday, “and Mr Greene is in the driver’s seat.”
“I remain deeply concerned about the acceptance of the Republican leadership of the Chamber of extreme conspiracy theorists,” Pelosi said at a news conference on Thursday.
“Particularly worrisome is his eagerness to reward a QAnon supporter, a 9/11 advocate, a harasser of child survivors of school shootings, to give them valuable committees positions, including – who would have thought they would put such a person on Education Committee? “