House GOP knows Greene is a problem — but they're afraid to do anything about her

House Republicans are reportedly considering removing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia from one of her committee assignments not because of her extremist comments and actions, but to avoid having to take a politically risky floor vote to punish her.

Greene, infamous for her repeated racist, antisemitic, and Islamophobic comments and her promotion of the right-wing QAnon conspiracy theory, has been olds appointed to both the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Budget Committee. The two largest teachers unions in the country, representing millions of teachers, have urged her removal from the education panel in reaction to her repeated claims that mass school shootings were actually “false flag” events staged to shore up support for gun control measures.

Since taking office last month, Greene has endangered her colleagues in Congress, refusing to wear a mask or to go through a metal detector. She has refused to apologize for her violent rhetoric and lies, instead raising funds through campaigns that portray her as a scrappy fighter being censored by the left.

House Democrats on Monday filed resolutions to censure Greene and to strip her of her committee assignments. No House Republicans have publicly backed these efforts.

A handful of Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Republican Jewish Coalition have spoken out against her.

House Democratic leaders warned this week that they would force a floor vote if Republicans did not act to deal with Greene within three days.

On Monday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy met with other members of his caucus to consider how to deal with the situation. According to Politico reporter Rachael Bade, they hope to remove her from the education committee to avoid having to publicly vote on a punishment.

“The feeling in the meeting was that a floor vote, and forcing Republicans to take a yes or a no vote on removing a colleague, would be catastrophic on the campaign trail,” Bade told CNN on Monday. “They could either get hit from the base or, if they’re from a swing district, they could be labeled as someone protecting a QAnon conspiracy theorist.”

During Greene’s primary campaign, some House Republicans condemned her hateful rhetoric, but after she won the nomination, they rallied around her. The party gave her funding, and McCarthy publicly embraced her, urging Americans to give her a chance in office before judging her.

On Monday, five House Republicans filed an amendment to the resolution against Greene seeking the removal from her committees of Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, whom they accuse of antisemitism for comments critical of Israel.

Omar apologized for the comments several days after she made them, noting, “Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes. My intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole. We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism … This is why I unequivocally apologize.”

No apologies from Greene have been forthcoming.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.