Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been called a “kook,” for her “looney lies” and that’s by people inside her own party. Today Rep. Kevin McCarthy even pointed out her comments on “school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference.” He said he condemned the comments, but that was the extent of the punishment he was willing to dole out. After a series of meetings over the last 24 hours, the House Minority leader announced he won’t be stripping her of committee assignments. In fact, McCarthy tried to spin all this as a “power grab” by Democrats. In a statement he said:
“I understand that Marjorie’s comments have caused deep wounds to many and as a result, I offered Majority Leader Hoyer a path to lower the temperature and address these concerns. Instead of coming together to do that, the Democrats are choosing to raise the temperature by taking the unprecedented step to further their partisan power grab regarding the committee assignments of the other party.”
Shorter McCarthy: We're doing nothing. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene remains a member in good standing of the House Republican conference, and, if we have our way, of the House Education Committee. https://t.co/cYAjBdWbs8
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) February 3, 2021
But this doesn’t mean Greene is off the hook. There is a Democratic resolution that would kick Greene off the House Education and Labor, and Budget Committees. And it only needs a simple majority to pass. In order words, Democrats could do it on their own. Although there is a good chance at least a handful of Republicans would vote to boot her off the committees as well.
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. The Rules Committee will meet this afternoon, and the House will vote on the resolution tomorrow.
— Steny Hoyer (@RepStenyHoyer) February 3, 2021
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a statement blasted McCarthy’s “cowardly refusal to act” against Greene, who Pelosi described as an “anti-Semite, a QAnon adherent and 9/11 Truther.” She listed McCarthy’s party affiliation as “Q-CA” in an apparent reference to the conspiracy theory that Greene has supported in the past.
https://twitter.com/AaronParnas/status/1357070326329442307
Watch more on the GOP struggle over Greene above from CNN’s Brianna Keilar.
Tomorrow America will see if @GOPLeader and the House Republican Caucus condemns Marjorie Taylor Greene, or embraces her. The vote will occur on the House Floor. https://t.co/JlAzB2xlg7
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) February 3, 2021