House strips Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee posts

Source: Politico | February 4, 2021 | Heather Caygle and Sarah Ferris

Republicans vowed to retaliate against Democrats if and when they retake the majority.

The House took the extraordinary step Thursday to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee posts over a series of incendiary comments and actions by the controversial GOP lawmaker, including endorsing the assassination of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

It is extremely rare for one party in the House to intervene in another’s personnel affairs. But the vote, which occurred mostly along party lines, came after GOP leaders refused to act on their own. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has denounced Greene’s past actions but rebuffed calls to take away her committee assignments, only offering to reassign her.

“If anybody starts threatening the lives of members of Congress on the Democratic side, we’d be the first to eliminate them from committees. They had the opportunity to do so,” Pelosi said Thursday.

Pelosi later told reporters that she was “profoundly disturbed” that Republicans were continuing to allow Greene, a known conspiracy theorist, to sit on those panels.

“You would think the Republican leadership in the Congress would have some sense of responsibility to this institution,” Pelosi said.

Eleven Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to remove Greene from the House Education and Budget committees. Republicans, including McCarthy, vowed retribution whenever the GOP is next in the majority.

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But Greene also used her speech to attack Big Tech, “cancel culture” and Black Lives Matter, while describing “a media that is just as guilty as QAnon of presenting lies that divide us.”

Her attacks on American journalism quickly drew a rebuke from House Rules Chair Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) on the floor, who said in rebuttal, “To equate the media to QAnon is beyond the pale.”

Democrats panned her floor speech Thursday, with Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.) saying it came off as “premeditated.”

“I did not hear remorse and I didn’t hear an apology,” Garcia said. “It’s all about spin and I think she’ll probably try to raise a lot of money from it. I think it’s disgraceful.

Before her appearance on Thursday, Greene had only issued defiant statements declaring she wouldn’t back down and fundraising off the push to punish her. Greene did express remorse during a tense closed-door GOP meeting Wednesday night — leading to a standing ovation by half the conference — but even Republicans in the room disagreed on whether she gave an actual apology.

While Greene’s speech didn’t win over Democrats, it seemed to help solidify her place in the GOP conference, where members had wanted Greene to denounce her rhetoric publicly.

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