Washington – The House will have to vote on a measure to strip the controversial Republican Party congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of its committees, while House Democrats try to punish the Republican lawmaker for a litany of incendiary comments and force Republican Party members to condemn or defend it.
In social media posts and videos made before she was elected to Congress, Greene, a freshman from Georgia, adopted a wealth of far-right conspiracy theories, including questions about whether deadly shootings had taken place. to school. Supporter of the fantastic QAnon conspiracy theory, she also shared videos with anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim sentiments and expressed support for violence against Democratic leaders in Congress.
House Democrats seized recently published posts and videos demanding that Republican leaders remove Greene from their seats on the House Budget Committee and the Education and Labor Committee. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy refused to do so, prompting Democratic leaders to pass a resolution in the House to remove it.
With the vote set for Thursday afternoon, Democrats will force senior Republican members to register on whether they believe Greene should maintain his positions on committees. Democrats have called for their seat on the Education and Labor Committee in particular, given Greene’s earlier promotion of conspiracy theories related to the Parkland and Newtown school traits.
In a speech to the chamber before the vote, Greene said the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred and that he believes children deserve protection from school traits.
“They’re words from the past and these things don’t represent me, they don’t represent my district, and they don’t represent my values,” Greene said. However, he also equated the press with QAnon, saying that the media was as divisive as the insidious conspiracy theories promoted by QAnon supporters.
McCarthy said in a statement Wednesday that he “unequivocally” condemned Greene’s past statements, but portrayed the Democrats’ move to remove her from committees as a seizure of power. Other Republicans have also condemned Greene’s comments, but have warned Democrats not to set a precedent for the majority party to dictate minority committee committee assignments.
At a lengthy Republican conference meeting Wednesday evening, Greene expressed remorse for his previous comments and his past support for QAnon conspiracy theory, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.
At the same meeting, Rep. Liz Cheney defended an effort to make her withdraw from her Republican House leadership role on her vote to accuse former President Donald Trump of inciting the attack on the Capitol. However, 61 Republican Party members voted to oust her from the leadership, suggesting deep divisions within the Republican group over the party’s leadership going forward.
House Democrats advanced the resolution calling for Greene’s removal from committees during a House Rules Committee meeting earlier Wednesday, and a vote was set Thursday afternoon in plenary.
The refusal of House GOP leaders to exercise their authority to remove Greene from his committee’s tasks contrasts with the treatment of a similar situation in 2019, when the party’s steering committee chose to delete the then Congressman Steve King of his committees for comments advocating white supremacy.
Congress Democrats have tried to link House Republicans to Greene’s extremist positions. In a statement Wednesday, President Nancy Pelosi’s office referred to McCarthy as the “Q-CA,” who labeled her as a California congressman.