House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denounced the GOP on Thursday for refusing to punish Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for her remarks backing the killing of top Democrats and outlandish conspiracy theories.
Pelosi, D-Calif., said it’s frightening that the GOP won’t act against Greene, a Georgia Republican, despite her extremist views, including support for conspiracy theories that Israel was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and claims that school shootings were staged hoaxes.
“I’m profoundly concerned about their acceptance of extreme conspiracy theorists” and “eagerness to reward a QAnon adherent, a 9/11 truther, a harasser of child survivors of school shootings,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi left no doubt that Democrats would push ahead with plans to strip Greene of her committee assignments after Republican leaders decided against doing so.
She brushed off concerns about the precedent that would set, claiming that Republicans abdicated their own responsibility to hold Greene accountable for her statements, which take on even more weight after right-wing rioters stormed the Capitol last month.
“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,” Pelosi said.
Greene, a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, has attracted controversy since she won a Republican primary and easily won election representing a deep-red district northwest of Atlanta.
Since winning the election, she has been dogged by revelations about her outrageous remarks and support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Some mainstream Republicans have denounced Greene, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., decided against seeking to boot her from her committee assignments.
Greene says she is a victim of liberal “cancel culture” that rejects conservative supporters of Trump.
Despite her views, Greene was greeted with a standing ovation by about half of her fellow House Republicans during a closed-door meeting of the GOP caucus.
Both parties have occasionally moved to strip controversial members of those seats. Most recently, Republicans punished ex-Rep. Steve King of Iowa over his remarks supporting white nationalism.
The GOP says previous cases were different because Greene’s most egregious remarks came before she took office.
Democrats reject that as a meaningless distinction particularly since she has stood by her remarks and their danger is more evident after the Capitol riot, which targeted opponents of Trump.
