199 House Republicans vote to let Marjorie Taylor Greene keep doing awful things

Just 11 Republicans voted on Thursday in favor of a House resolution to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) from her committee assignments “in light of conduct she has exhibited,” based on her well-documented record of antisemitic, Islamophobic, and racist comments and her loyalty to the dangerous QAnon conspiracy theory movement.

One hundred ninety-nine Republicans voted not to sanction Greene, after GOP leaders whipped against doing so.

The resolution, introduced by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and dozens of other Democrats, found that Greene’s conduct had not reflected “creditably on the House.” With 230 votes overall for the measure, Greene was removed from her seats on the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Education and Labor.

In a floor speech before the vote, Greene did not apologize for her record, but claimed her previous words “do not represent me,” “do not represent my district, and they do not represent my values.”

She told colleagues “it’s important for all of us to remember, none of us are perfect,” alleged that “the media is just as guilty as QAnon for promoting lies,” and then lied about her history of sharing QAnon conspiracies, falsely claiming that she had not spread them since becoming a candidate.

While her record was well known before she was elected to the House in 2020, since taking office, Greene has endangered colleagues through her refusal to comply with congressional COVID-19 and firearm safety rules. Additionally, since the election, media outlets have unearthed additional statements she made in the past, endorsing calls for the execution of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and “deep state” officials supposedly working against Donald Trump and claiming that deadly mass school shootings had been faked to promote gun control.

While some Senate Republicans and the Republican Jewish Committee have condemned Greene for her bigotry and behavior, Illinois’ Adam Kinzinger has been the lone House Republican to speak in favor of removing her from the committees.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who had previously urged everyone to give Greene a chance before judging her, said this week that he would take no action against her. He complained that the resolution “continues to distract Congress.” On Wednesday night, he even claimed that he did not know what QAnon was, despite having specifically denounced it just months ago.

House Republicans have long tolerated extremists and racists. Former Rep. Steve King (R-IA), a white supremacist who spent years attacking immigrants and praised rape and incest, held office for 18 years, but he was not removed from his committee assignments until 2019. He was defeated by another far-right extremist in the 2020 primary.

The GOP caucus currently includes Lauren Boebert of Colorado, another QAnon backer who tweeted, “Today is 1776” hours before Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6; Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, who complained that Jews are hard to convert to Christianity, bragged about visiting Adolf Hitler’s vacation home, and made racist comments against Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ); Bob Good of Virginia, who said this week that he is “thankful” to have Greene as a colleague, adding, “I think she stands for a lot of great things”; and Louie Gohmert of Texas, who suggested that legitimate “controversies” motivated a white supremacist gunman who killed dozens of Muslims in a shooting at a New Zealand mosque in 2019 and defended King’s comments in support of white nationalism and white supremacy.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.