Washington – Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell denounced newly elected MP Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday, calling the adoption of conspiracy theories and “crazy lies” by Georgia’s Republican far right a “cancer for the Republican Party “.
“Someone who suggested that perhaps no planes hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that the horrific school shootings were pre-staged and that the Clintons shot down JFK Jr.’s plane is not really living,” said McConnell, R-Ky . , referring to a handful of conspiracy theories that Greene has published in the past. “This has nothing to do with the challenges that American families face or solid debates about the content that can strengthen our party.”
McConnell’s explicit condemnation increases pressure on House Republicans to take action against Greene, even when she claims renewed support for former President Trump. The issue comes at a time when House Democrats acted on Monday to remove Greene from his committee duties if Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Refuses to do so himself.
“It is my hope and expectation that Republicans will do the right thing and hold Congressman Greene accountable, and we will not need to consider this resolution,” said House majority leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. “But we are prepared for that, if necessary.”
So far, however, Republican leaders in the House have been reluctant to criticize Trump’s supporters, like Greene, for fear that they could alienate the former president’s most fervent voters, underscoring a bitter split over how the out-of-power party should navigate the two years until the next congressional elections.
Greene responded to McConnell on Monday night with a Twitter article, suggesting that “the real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose elegantly.”
“That is why we are losing our country,” she wrote.
McConnell’s statement criticizing Greene was first reported by The Hill newspaper.
The Democrats’ willingness to act against a member of the opposite party underscores their desire to confront far-right politicians like Greene, who are closely aligned with some of the former president’s supporters, including extremist groups who were involved in the violent Capitol insurrection.
“If Republicans do not police theirs, the House must intervene,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Florida, who is sponsoring the move to remove Greene from her positions on the House’s education and budget committees.
Greene’s views were in the spotlight even before she joined the House last month.
The Georgia Republican expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theories, which focus on the belied belief that top Democrats are involved in child sex trafficking, Satan worship and cannibalism. Facebook videos surfaced last year showing that she expressed racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views. Leading Republicans denounced her at the time, hoping to prevent her from obtaining the Republican Party nomination in her trusted red congressional district in northwest Georgia.
But after she won the primary, they accepted her widely. Since then, even more comments, posts and videos of her have been discovered, although many were recently deleted after attracting attention.
She “liked” Facebook posts that advocated violence against Democrats and the FBI. One suggested shooting the head of the mayor, Nancy Pelosi. In response to a post raising the possibility of hanging former President Obama, Greene replied that “the scene is being set”.
In an undated video posted online, Greene launched a conspiracy theory that falsely suggests that the 2017 mass shootout that killed 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas could have been a false flag operation to build support for the gun control legislation.
She also “liked” a Facebook post that challenged the veracity of a mass shooting in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Another video captured her confronting Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivor David Hogg.
After her election, she took advantage of Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen and applauded her supporters the day before the Capitol was invaded.
“It’s our time in 1776!” she posted on the conservative social media platform Parler.
Last week, Pelosi pressured House Republicans to act.
“Assigning her to the education committee when she scoffed at the murder of children” in Newtown, “what could they be thinking, or is it a very generous word for what they may be doing?” Pelosi said of Republican leaders. “It is absolutely terrible.”
In a tweet over the weekend, Greene gave a defiant tone. She also said that she had spoken to Mr. Trump and was “grateful for his support”.
“I will never back down and I will rise up against the endless bloodthirsty crowd,” she tweeted.
McCarthy is due to meet Greene in private this week. A spokesman for the Republican leader declined to comment on Monday.
While it is not certain that he will take action against Greene, McCarthy has punished members of the Republican bench in the House before. Former MP Steve King, R-Iowa, was stripped of all of his committee duties after expressing support for white supremacists in 2019.
Wasserman Schultz acknowledged on Monday that it had long been up to leaders to remove members of their own party’s Congress from their committee assignments. But she said the Republicans’ reluctance to act leaves Democrats with no choice.
“Mrs Greene’s terrible behavior before her election and during her tenure helped fuel domestic terrorism, put her colleagues’ lives at risk and shamed the entire House of Representatives,” said Wasserman Schultz. “Based on her actions and statements and her belligerent refusal to repudiate them, she should not be allowed to participate in the important work of these two influential committees.”