GOP is just fine with QAnon congresswoman unless something 'more egregious' happens

Recently reelected Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said she does not support ousting freshman Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress.

McDaniel said that Greene, who has faced calls to resign as more examples of her racist, antisemitic, Islamophobic, and violent statements come to light, would have to do something “more egregious” to merit removal.

“It depends if there’s more egregious things, if there’s a David Duke situation,” McDaniel told the New York Times in an interview published Monday morning. “Majorie Taylor Greene is trying to distance herself from those things and there’s going to be an investigation. I trust the voters. I have a lot of faith in the voters to pick who’s best to represent them.”

McDaniel did not clarify in her interview what behavior might qualify as “more egregious” and worthy of punishment.

In addition to her long record of bigoted statements, Greene has been one of the loudest voices in pushing the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, helping to incite the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Most recently, CNN and Media Matters for America unearthed comments Greene made in 2018 and 2019 calling for the execution of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; saying a deadly wildfire in California in 2018 was started by space lasers connected with a longtime target of antisemitic conspiracy theories, the Rothschild family; and calling mass shootings that killed students in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida, “false flag” operations meant to build support for gun control.

Before she won her seat, it was public knowledge that Greene had said Muslims do “not belong in government,” calling the election of several Muslim lawmakers in 2018 “an Islamic invasion of our government.” Greene has also said there is no systemic racism in the United States, but rather Black people are “lazy” and make “bad choices,” insisting that “the most mistreated group of people in the United States today are white males.”

McDaniel is also wrong in saying that Greene has disavowed her past comments.

Greene is deleting past social media posts, but in a statement on Friday, she doubled down on her conspiracy theories, saying that the “radical, left-wing Democratic mob and the Fake News media” were running “smear campaign attacks” against her.

On Saturday, Greene said that she has Donald Trump’s support, vowing, “I won’t back down. I’ll never apologize. And I’ll always keep fighting for the people.”

Leaders of Jewish organizations have called for Greene’s ouster, saying her antisemitic rhetoric is unacceptable, and Democratic members of Congress have introduced legislation to expel Greene from Congress.

But few Republicans have criticized her.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who told the country to give Greene an “opportunity” to serve before judging her, plans to speak with Greene this week.

But there’s no sign McCarthy will punish Greene, especially now that Trump has apparently voiced his support for her. McCarthy has rarely broken with Trump, ultimately embracing Trump again even after the riot at the Capitol, and vowing to work with him to help Republicans in their quest to win back control of the House in the 2022 midterms.

If Democrats do put an expulsion bill on the floor, however, it will force every Republican to go on record on whether they support Greene’s violent, antisemitic, racist, Islamophobic comments.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.