The House of Representatives voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) from her committee assignments on Thursday following a range of controversial remarks that she made in the past while embracing debunked conspiracy theories.
Greene was removed from her assignments following a 230-199 vote where 11 Republicans broke ranks and voted with Democrats.
The vote came after Greene renounced some the incendiary remarks that she made in the past during a 10-minute speech on the House floor.
“These were words of the past, and these things do not represent me, they do not represent my district, and they do not represent my values,” she said.
Of the 11 Republicans who voted to remove Greene, three were members of her freshman class, including Reps. Carlos Gimenez (FL), Young Kim (CA), and Nicole Malliotakis (NY).
The other eight Republicans were Reps. Chris Jacobs (NY), John Katko (NY), Adam Kinzinger (IL), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL), Chris Smith (NJ), Fred Upton (MI), and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA).
The 11 Republicans, per @mkraju:
-M. Diaz-Balart (FL)
-B. Fitzpatrick (PA)
-C. Gimenez (FL)
-J. Katko (NY)
-Y. Kim (CA)
-A. Kinzinger (IL)
-N. Malliotakis (NY)
-C. Jacobs (NY)
-M. Salazar (FL)
-C. Smith (NJ)
-F. Upton (MI)Three are from South Florida, also home to Parkland
— Grace Panetta (@grace_panetta) February 4, 2021
“Typically, party leadership decides the committee slots for their own members. [House Minority Leader Kevin] McCarthy, for instance, in 2019 decided to remove former Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, from committee assignments following his remarks panned as racist. McCarthy, however, declined to take action against Greene, saying she has denounced QAnon and will abide by a higher standard as a member of Congress,” Fox News reported. “Greene defended herself in a floor speech earlier Thursday where she said she regretted her past statements on QAnon conspiracy theories and made clear she thought that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and school shootings were not a hoax.”
McCarthy issued a statement on Wednesday slamming Greene’s past comments and also highlighted some of the egregious actions that elected Democrats have engaged in who still have their committee assignments.
McCarthy said:
Past comments from and endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene on school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference. I condemn those comments unequivocally. I condemned them in the past. I continue to condemn them today. This House condemned QAnon last Congress and continues to do so today.
I made this clear to Marjorie when we met. I also made clear that as a member of Congress we have a responsibility to hold ourselves to a higher standard than how she presented herself as a private citizen. Her past comments now have much greater meaning. Marjorie recognized this in our conversation. I hold her to her word, as well as her actions going forward.
I understand that Marjorie’s comments have caused deep wounds to many and as a result, I offered Majority Leader Hoyer a path to lower the temperature and address these concerns. Instead of coming together to do that, the Democrats are choosing to raise the temperature by taking the unprecedented step to further their partisan power grab regarding the committee assignments of the other party.
While Democrats pursue a resolution on Congresswoman Greene, they continue to do nothing about Democrats serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee who have spread anti-Semitic tropes, Democrats on the House Intelligence and Homeland Security Committee compromised by Chinese spies, or the Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee who advocated for violence against public servants.
In the end, this resolution continues to distract Congress, especially given the limited time that Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat leadership want the House to debate and work, on what it needs to focus on: getting Americans back to work, getting kids back to school, and providing vaccines to all Americans who need it.