Washington – Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell on Monday denounced newly elected Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called Georgia’s Republican embrace of conspiracy theories and “false lies” a “cancer for the Republican party.” .
“Someone who has suggested that maybe no planes hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrific school shootings were pre-established, and that JFK Jr.’s plane crashed into the Clintons doesn’t live in reality,” McConnell said. , from Kentucky, to a handful of conspiracy theories that Greene has made known in the past. “This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the heated debates on the background that can strengthen our party.”
McConnell’s explicit condemnation adds to pressure on House Republicans to take action against Greene, even when he calls for renewed support from former President Trump. It comes when House Democrats moved Monday to remove Greene from his committee duties if California Republican leader Kevin McCarthy refuses to do so himself.
“I have my hope and expectation that Republicans will do the right thing and hold Rep. Greene accountable, and we will not have to heed that resolution,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland. “But we’re ready to do it if necessary.”
So far, however, Republican Party leaders in the House have been reluctant to criticize Trump supporters, such as Greene, for concern that they could alienate the former president’s most ardent voters, stressing a bitter split over how he should navigate. the party was out of power for two years until the next congressional elections.
Greene responded to McConnell on Monday afternoon with a wide-ranging point on Twitter, suggesting that “the real cancer for the Republican party is the weak Republicans who only know how to lose with grace.”
“That’s why we are losing our country,” he wrote.
McConnell’s statement criticizing Greene was first reported by The Hill newspaper.
Democrats’ willingness to act against a member of the opposition party underscores their desire to confront far-right politicians, such as Greene, who are closely aligned with some of the former president’s marginal supporters, including extremist groups that they took part in the violent insurrection of the Capitol.
“If Republicans don’t control their own, the House must intervene,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat who sponsors the move to remove Greene from office on the House’s education and budget committees. .
Greene’s views were in the spotlight even before he joined the House last month.
The Republican of Georgia has expressed support for QAnon’s conspiracy theories, which focus on the discredited belief that top Democrats are involved in child sex trafficking, Satan worship, and cannibalism. Last year Facebook videos appeared showing that he had expressed racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views. Republican leaders denounced her at the time, hoping to block her from capturing the Republican Party nomination in her red and reliable Congress district in northwest Georgia.
But after winning their primaries, they largely accepted it. Since then, even more of his previous comments, posts and videos have been unearthed, although many have recently been deleted after attracting attention.
He liked Facebook posts advocating violence against Democrats and the FBI. One suggested shooting the head of the chamber, Nancy Pelosi, in the head. In response to a post that raised the possibility of hanging former President Obama, Greene responded that “the stage is being set.”
In an undated video posted online, Greene raised a conspiracy theory that falsely suggests that the 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people at a Las Vegas country music festival could have been a false flag operation to give support for arms control legislation.
He also liked a post on Facebook that challenged the veracity of a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Another video captured her facing school shooting survivor David Hogg in Parkland, Florida.
After his election, he seized the false claims of Mr. Trump stole the election and encouraged his supporters the day before the Capitol was stormed.
“It’s our time of 1776!” posted on the conservative-type social media platform Parler.
Last week, Pelosi pressured House Republicans to act.
“Assigning her to the education committee, when she has mocked the murder of young children” in Newtown, “what could they be thinking or thinking a word too generous for what they might be doing?” Pelosi said of Republican leaders. “It’s absolutely scary.”
In a weekend tweet, Greene sounded a defiant tone. She also said she had spoken with Mr. Trump and was “grateful for his support.”
“I will never back down and stand up against the endless crowd of blood,” he tweeted.
McCarthy is supposed to meet privately with Greene this week. A spokesman for the Republican leader declined to comment Monday.
While he is not sure he will take action against Greene, McCarthy has already punished members of the House Republican committee. Former Iowa Rep. Steve King was stripped of all his committee duties after expressing his support for white supremacists in 2019.
Wasserman Schultz acknowledged Monday that leaders had long since left the responsibility of removing members of Congress from their own party from the tasks of their committees. But he said Republicans’ reluctance to take action left Democrats little choice.
“Representative Greene’s terrible behavior, both before her election and during her term, has helped fuel domestic terrorism, endanger the lives of her colleagues and cause embarrassment to the entire House of Representatives,” he said. dir Wasserman Schultz. “Based on his actions and statements and his belligerent refusal to disallow them, he should not be allowed to participate in the important work of these two influential committees.”