Shrugging off the inflammatory remarks that their own members have frequently made on social media and other forums, House Democrats managed by six votes to strip a member of the opposition party of two key committee assignments.
Democrats voted 216–210 to move forward with the procedure, the Gateway Pundit reported.
If anyone think that the Democrats' unprecedented actions to remove Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee will be limited just to her, they are sadly mistaken.
Democrats are attempting to silence many public officials, abusing their delegated power time after time. pic.twitter.com/mY3doXjlu6
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) February 4, 2021
A subsequent motion to adjourn likewise failed to gain any traction following a 218-205 party-line vote.
Original story below:
(Headline USA) Embattled Rep. Marjorie Greene, facing a House vote to strip her of committee assignments, said Thursday that she regrets some “words of the past,” but she did not specifically apologize for her rhetoric.
Alternating between contrition and defiance, the newly elected Georgia Republican asserted in a House speech that she was “a very regular American” who posted conspiracy theories from QAnon and other sources before she began campaigning for Congress, but that those views did not represent her.
She also blamed the media, equating her own endorsement of violence against Democrats with those in the party who supported violent riots over the summer and harassment of conservatives in public spaces.
“Will we allow the media, that is just a guilty as QAnon of presenting truth and lies, to divide us?” Greene said, referring to the conspiracy theory, which posits that the political establishment is tied to a global sex trafficking ring that also involves Satanism and cannibalism.
Democrats were expected to move forward later Thursday with the vote to remove her from her committee posts.
House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern said that while Greene expressed regret over her remarks and claimed to have an epiphany that QAnon was false in 2018, many of her comments — including those endorsing violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — were more recent.
“I did not hear an apology or denouncement for the insinuation that political opponents should be violently dealt with,” McGovern said. “It’s not ancient history.”
The vote will force Greene’s Republican colleagues to go on the record to defend or rebuke her after she has drawn bipartisan condemnation over her past remarks. The political dilemma for Republicans underscores the tension that has riven the party over its future since Donald Trump lost the White House.
Democrats gave Republicans an ultimatum earlier this week: strip Greene of her committee assignments, or they would. Bipartisan pressure built after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called Greene’s “loony lies” a “cancer” for the party.
But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., ruled out taking action. Instead, he accused Democrats of a “partisan power grab” for targeting Greene.
Pelosi told reporters Thursday that she was “profoundly concerned” by Republicans’ “acceptance of an extreme conspiracy theorist.”
“If any of our members threatened the safety of other members, we’d be the first ones to take them off a committee,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said hours before the planned vote, ignoring the fact that her fellow Golden State Congresswoman, Maxine Waters, advocated for that very thing.
Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.
