Feb. 3 (UPI) — House Democrats are moving forward with a plan to strip freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., of her committee assignments in response to her spreading conspiracy theories about the election and supporting death threats against fellow congress members on social media before she was elected.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said conversations with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., asking Republicans to demote Greene had been unsuccessful.
“I spoke to Leader McCarthy this morning, and it is clear there is no alternative to holding a Floor vote on the resolution to remove Rep. Greene from her committee assignments,” Hoyer said in a statement. “The Rules Committee will meet this afternoon, and the House will vote on the resolution [Thursday].”
Democrats had hoped GOP leader McCarthy would censure Greene’s extreme views as he did with Republican Iowa Rep. Steve King, who was removed in 2019 from committee posts after defending White supremacism in media interviews.
Greene ran as an outsider and was welcomed by Trump supporters in the House after she had embraced QAnon conspiracy theories and picked fights with student survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. CNN reported that Greene supported posts calling for the assassination of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and said the FBI was part of the “deep state” working against then-President Donald Trump.
Greene defended herself saying other people ran her social media accounts.
“Many posts have been liked. Many posts have been shared. Some did not represent my views,” she said on CNN.
In January, the freshman congresswoman had her Twitter account temporarily suspended after tweeting falsehoods about Georgia election officials who had said that Joe Biden had won the state’s electoral votes in the presidential election.
Greene was promoted by House Republicans, in spite of her newcomer status, to positions on the House’s prestigious Education and Labor and Budget committees.
On Monday, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., proposed removing Greene from her committee assignments for the remainder of this Congress.
On Tuesday, Pelosi announced fines for congressional lawmakers who refused to walk through Capitol metal detectors installed after the Jan. 6 siege. Greene and Colorado freshman Rep. Lauren Boebert had both refused to pass through the detectors.
On Wednesday Greene complained that Pelosi was targeting her.
“White, Woman, Wife, Mother, Christian, Conservative, Business Owner. These are the reasons they don’t want me on [Education and Labor Committee],” Greene said. “It’s my identity and my values.”
She also bragged Tuesday that she had fundraised $160,000 “to send a message to the Democrat mob.”
