Within the past week, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has seen a great deal of backlash for her propagation of conspiracy theories that many of her colleagues in government could no longer ignore in the wake of the riot that struck the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
It is in this context that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell saw fit to condemn such theories as “loony lies” that function as a “cancer” for the Republican Party. It also prompted Democrats within the House of Representatives to draft a resolution that would formally remove Greene from all of her committee appointments.
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And on the evening of February 5, that resolution came to an official vote.
While the conspiracy theories Greene has shared were their own matters of concern, outrage against her was particularly enflamed by other social media statements she had made before her election.
As CNN reported , these included repeated indications of support for the idea of executing prominent Democratic politicians.
With such statements in mind, this clip of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer presenting an image Greene posted of herself holding an AR-15 rifle next to images of Democrats can take on a more explicit light than may otherwise be perceived.
Before the vote on the resolution to remove Greene from the House Budget Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee was cast, Greene attempted to distance herself from her previous statements in a speech.
According to ABC News , she stated that she now believes “9/11 absolutely happened” and “school shootings are absolutely real and every child that is lost, those families mourn it.”
The outlet further reported that she apologized to her colleagues for spreading QAnon conspiracy theories and suggesting that school shootings were “false flag” operations in a private conference on Wednesday night.
However, there seems to be some incongruence between this private acknowledgement of her actions and her public statements the day after that suggest the consequences she now faces are the result of a “mob” that she accuses of trying to silence not only her but all Republicans.
When the votes came in, the resolution passed by a margin of 230-199, which means that Greene will now lose her committee appointments.
As CNN reported, 11 House Republicans broke with their colleagues and voted in favor of removing Greene.
This contrasted with the suggestion by House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to instead transfer Greene to the House Small Business Committee.
Although McCarthy was among the representatives who condemned Greene’s statements, he also described the resolution to remove her as a “partisan power grab.”
In the statement we can see here, he also accused the Democrats of undermining Congress and deepening divisions within the House by removing her.
However, it’s worth noting that — as ABC News reported — the resolution came after Democrats presented McCarthy and other Republican leaders with the opportunity to take their own disciplinary action against Greene, which they elected not to.
In defense of the resolution, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “That’s just so unfortunate. You would think the Republican leadership in the Congress would have some sense of responsibility to this institution.”
Nonetheless, the resolution does potentially set the precedent that elected officials of any party affiliation can be punished for statements made before they took office.
However, Pelosi has since stated that she is not concerned about this precedent being applied to Democrats in the future.
In a statement obtained by CNN, she said, “None, not at all. Not at all. If any of our members threatened the safety of other members we’d be the first ones to take them off of a committee. That’s it.”
