Controversial U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene could lose her committee assignments following a vote by her colleagues Thursday.
The Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives says congress will meet to vote on a resolution that would see Greene stripped of her education and budget committee assignments.
“I spoke to Leader McCarthy this morning, and it is clear there is no alternative to holding a Floor vote on the resolution to remove Rep. Greene from her committee assignments,” Steny Hoyer tweeted Wednesday.
“The Rules Committee will meet this afternoon, and the House will vote on the resolution tomorrow.”
The vote comes as a formal reproach against the newly-elected Georgia representative, who has been the subject of controversy over her history of racist comments, ardent support for QAnon, and endorsement of far-right conspiracy theories that claim several mass school shootings were fake and that Jewish space lasers caused the 2018 California wildfires.
Greene took aim at House Democrats on Wednesday following the news, singling out U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a flurry of tweets that claimed Democrats were out to “steal America’s freedoms” and “erase God’s creation.”
“No matter what @GOPLeader does it would never be enough for the hate America Democrats,” she tweeted.
Earlier this week, Hoyer said it was his “hope and expectation that Republicans will do the right thing and hold Rep. Greene accountable,” urging House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to remove the Greene himself, or trigger a House vote.
McCarthy released a statement on Wednesday, saying that “past comments from and endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene on school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference.”
“I condemn those comments unequivocally. I condemned them in the past. I continue to condemn them today,” he said, adding that during a meeting on Tuesday he told Greene she has a responsibility to meet a “higher standard” than she did as a private citizen.
“I hold her to her word, as well as her actions going forward.”
Bi-partisan pressure has been mounting for Republicans to take action against Greene, underscoring the party’s difficulty to form a unified voice in the aftermath of former GOP leader Donald Trump’s presidency.
U.S. Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell called Greene a “cancer for the Republican Party,” denouncing her “loony lies” on Monday.
“Somebody who’s suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9-11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.’s airplane is not living in reality,” he said.
“This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.”
Meanwhile, Republicans are facing another tough decision: whether to remove their No. 3 House leader, Liz Cheney, over her remarks criticizing Trump.
Cheney, the daughter of former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney, made headlines last month after becoming one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the violent U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6 that left five people dead.
“There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” she said on Jan. 12.
McCarthy said Wednesday he defended Cheney’s decision to state her “differences of opinion.”
“Liz has a right to vote her conscience,” said McCarthy.
GOP Gov. Larry Hogan urged congressional Republicans to “make the right choice” in their decision-making, in a statement to the Associated Press.
“We can either become a fringe party that never wins elections or rebuild the big tent party of Reagan,” he said.
— With files from the Associated Press
Comments