The U.S. House of Represntatives on Thursday voted to strip committee assignments from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), saying she had forfeited her right to those seats by endorsing conspiracy theories, racist dogma and violence against fellow lawmakers and Democratic leaders.
According to the Washington Post, lawmakers passed the resolution largely along party lines — 230-199 — to remove Greene from the House Education and Budget committees after Republicans declined to take action against her themselves.
Eleven Republicans crossed the aisle in a rare rebuke of a colleague from their own party: Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Carlos Giménez (Fla.), Chris Jacobs (N.Y.), John Katko (N.Y.), Young Kim (Calif.), Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.), Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.), Chris Smith (N.J.) and Fred Upton (Mich.).
Before the extraordinary vote, Democrats asked GOP leaders to hold members of Congress to what they think should be a minimal standard: that anyone who has endorsed political violence or embraced conspiracy theories like suggesting school shootings were staged or QAnon — whose supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 — has no business serving on committees.
But House Republicans, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, are wary of angering the GOP base that embraces Trump and Greene and decided not to remove her from her Committee post.
Unlike House Republicans, their Senate counterparts have gone out of their way to distance themselves from her.
Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the second-ranking Senate Republican, warned Thursday that Republicans need to “get away from members dabbling in conspiracy theories.”
“I don’t think that’s a productive course of action or one that’s going to lead to much prosperity politically in the future,” Thune said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) this week condemned Greene’s embrace of “loony lies and conspiracy theories” as a “cancer for the Republican Party.”
Democrats have happily embraced those comments, citing them throughout the debate to pressure McCarthy and House Republicans to take action against Greene themselves.
“Why would Kevin McCarthy continue to associate himself and the Republican Conference with someone who Leader Mitch McConnell has characterized as a cancer?” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Caucus. “The last time I checked, cancers need to be cut out and not allowed to metastasize.”
