As the House will accept requests for Greene to be removed from the House Education and Work Commission and the Budget Committee “in the light of the conduct she has exhibited”.
The move could set a risky precedent, as Democrats target a member of the opposing party in Congress on the views expressed before it serves as an elected official – which has the potential to someday be used against the party by Republicans.
Students who survived the shooting in Parkland, Florida, and the victims’ families asked for Greene’s resignation after comments emerged that showed his agreement with people who said the shooting was a “false flag” operation.
A McCarthy spokesman called these comments by Greene “deeply disturbing” in a recent statement and McCarthy tried to distance Republicans from his rhetoric in his statement on Wednesday.
“Previous comments by and endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene about school shootings, political violence and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference. I condemn these comments unequivocally. I have condemned them in the past. I continue to condemn them today. This House condemned QAnon at the last Congress and continues to do so today, “he said.
But the California Republican accused Democrats of division, saying that “Democrats are choosing to raise the temperature by taking an unprecedented step to promote their party seizure over the other party’s committee duties.”
Greene did not publicly apologize and was defiant in the face of criticism. She addressed the controversy during a closed-door meeting at the Republican Party conference on Wednesday night and said her social media posts did not reflect who she is as a person, according to a person in the room.
She announced on Saturday that she had spoken to former President Donald Trump and said she was “very grateful for (Trump’s) support”, adding: “More importantly, the people of this country are absolutely 100% loyal to him because he is 100 % loyal to the people and America First. “
The majority leader in the House, Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, took the first step to remove Greene from his roles on both committees after speaking to McCarthy on Wednesday.
“I spoke to leader McCarthy this morning, and it is clear that there is no alternative to holding a plenary vote on the resolution to remove Mrs Greene from her committee duties,” said Hoyer in a statement, adding that “the House will vote to resolution tomorrow. “
McCarthy later told reporters that he had offered to transfer Greene to the Small Business Committee.
“Marjorie also owns a small business. Change her to a small business. I made this offer to the Democrats and they chose to do something Congress never did,” he said.
Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, who is sponsoring the privileged resolution to remove Greene, described on Monday in a liaison with reporters how the House could remove Greene from his duties on the committee.
“We can remove it from the committee because, ultimately, although our party leaders and our party process refer us to the committees, the House actually ultimately confirms these party recommendations, essentially, and because it is an action of the House, we can take a House action to remove a member from the committee, “she said.
The resolution requires only a simple majority to pass, not a two-thirds vote, which is why Wasserman Schultz told reporters on Monday that she expects it to pass.
The congresswoman said she talked to the Republicans about the resolution and, although she does not expect any of them to sign, she expects some support.
“I’m talking to Republicans, and while I don’t have much hope of attracting Republican co-sponsors, I hope that when we present the resolution as a privilege resolution, it will attract Republican support, but not much,” she said.
CNN’s Manu Raju and Lauren Fox contributed to this report.