The House of Representatives will go on the record Thursday in a vote over the conduct of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Democrat-controlled chamber will decide whether to remove Greene from her assignments on the House Education and Labor Committee and the Budget Committee over her violent statements in support of conspiracy theories and violence against other members of Congress.
Lawmakers will vote on the measure just one day after Republican House Minority Leader, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, failed to take significant steps to address Greene’s misconduct. McCarthy said last week he planned to “have a conversation” with Greene. On Wednesday, McCarthy released a statement calling her past comments “deeply disturbing,” particularly statements Greene has made about “school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.” But McCarthy then went on to accuse Democrats of divisiveness over their decision to reprimand Greene in a House vote.
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After speaking with McCarthy on Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer motioned to strip Greene of her committee assignments. “I have been in the Congress for 40 years,” said the Maryland Democrat. “I can’t remember — and I’ve thought about it — any situation that I believe is analogous to what Ms. Greene has done before and after her being elected to the Congress of the United States.” Hoyer added there was “no alternative.”
House Democrats say the vote is a necessary step toward accountability, despite pleas from the right that it could set a dangerous precedent. “A member of this House is calling for assassinations — that’s the new precedent,” said Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat and chairman of the Rules Committee. “If that’s the standard that we remove people from committees, I’m fine with that.”
McGovern added that members of both parties had been stripped of their committee assignments in the past, including Democratic Rep. William Jefferson and Republican Rep. Steve King. He explained that in the face of previous transgressions, “leadership on both sides always did the right thing.”
As for Greene, she hasn’t shown remorse for her violent behavior or remarks — including her incitement of violence at the Capitol on January 6 by objecting to the 2020 presidential election results, and her endorsement of comments threatening violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama.
Instead, Greene is using the House vote as an opportunity to fundraise. “We owe them no apologies,” Greene tweeted earlier this week. “We will never back down.” As of Tuesday, Greene said that she had raised “over $160,000 to send a message to the Democrat mob.”