QAnon rep Marjorie Taylor Greene demands GOP reinstates her to House committees and 'correct unprecedented wrong' after she was removed with 11 Republicans joining Democrats to vote her off 230 to 199
Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene effectively demanded the House to reinstate her to her committee seats and 'correct this unprecedented wrong' after she was removed on Thursday when 11 Republicans joined Democrats to vote her off 230 to 199.
Greene, who did not make the comment herself, retweeted a post from Andy Biggs, a Republican congressman from Arizona, telling his colleagues 'not to give in to the Left's lawless authoritarianism.'
'Time for Republicans to do what’s right and correct this unprecedented wrong. Put Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene back on her committees,' Biggs wrote.
'If House Democrats proceed with their unprecedented action to strip a sitting Member of Congress of her committees for thoughts she shared as a private citizen, Republicans should reassign her to the same committees.'
Hours after the vote, Greene wrote: 'Thank you to the real Republicans who stood with me today! Every single one of you will be remembered.'
Marjorie Taylor Greene retweeted posts from Rep. Andy Biggs calling for her to be reinstated to her committee seats
Greene thanked the 199 Republicans who voted for her to keep her House committee assignments on Thursday
Democrats, and 11 Republicans, voted Thursday to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from both her committee assignments for espousing QAnon conspiracies before being elected to Congress – including supporting calls online for Nancy Pelosi's execution.
The 230-199 vote created the simple majority needed for Greene to get booted from her posts on the Education and Labor Committee and Budget Committee.
Highlighting the furthering divide between the parties and pressure to become more party-aligned, not one Democrat crossed the line to vote in opposition of the majority of their party.
On the Republicans side, however, 11 felt Greene's comments were too charged not to be addressed. Among those who voted to remove Greene from her posts were Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.
Ahead of the vote Thursday, Greene dramatically abandoned her QAnon conspiracy theories in a speech to the House of Representatives.
Democrat House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, however, claimed Greene's remarks were anything but an apology.
The Georgia Republican said '9/11 absolutely happened,' and that 'school shootings are real,' disclaiming two of the bizarre claims which had made her the focus for opprobrium from Democrats and condemnation from her GOP colleagues.
Hoyer came out guns blazing with a staunch denunciation of Greene – claiming her disavowing a few beliefs in a floor speech earlier in the day was not enough to excuse her touting them online. And claiming removal from her committees is just the first step in reprimanding her.
'None of us should take any pleasure in what we must do today,' Hoyer said ahead of the vote Thursday evening. 'But to do nothing would be an abdication of our moral responsibility to our colleagues, to the House, to our values, to the truth, and to our country.'
'The truth is unavoidable,' he continued. 'Republicans have yet to offer a clear and unambiguous declaration that political violence is unacceptable and has no place in their ranks.'
'This vote can be a first step in correcting the error of those who so far have chosen to do nothing,' Hoyer said of Republicans refusal to take action against Greene from within the Party.
During his remarks, Hoyer walked a poster around the room with an image of a since-deleted tweet from Greene when she was running her congressional campaign in September.
The image showed Greene holding an AR-15 and to her right had black and white inserts of progressive Representatives and 'squad' members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. The caption read 'Sqaud's Worst Nightmare.'
On the other hand, Republicans' case against removing Greene was aimed sharply at Representative Ilhan Omar's blatantly anti-Semitic tropes and downplay of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
They claimed in floor remarks Thursday that Democrats are exhibiting a double standard in taking action against Greene but not Omar – or other members of their own party who have made controversial comments both before and after taking their oath of office.
The House voted 230-199 on Thursday to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments for her past comments and posts aligning herself with QAnon conspiracy theories
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer issues a scathing condemnation of Greene during his remarks on the floor Thursday
He also carried an image of Greene's now-deleted tweet around the chamber
The tweet included an image of Green holding an AR-15 alongside images of progressive Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib in black and white
The image reads 'Sqaud's Worst Nightmare;
Hoyer carried the poster board over to the Republican side of the chamber to make sure they saw the inflammatory image
Greene deleted the September post from her Twitter account after receiving backlash, but not the tweets talking about her raffle giving away the rifle she held in the image
Republicans' used their time defending Greene on the House floor Thursday by attacking Omar for her past controversial comments and questioning the Democratic double standard in not removing her from the Foreign Affairs Committee for her anti-Semitic tropes and downplaying 9/11 terrorist attacks
Pictured far-right, Greene listens to lawmakers make their case for and against her removal
Greene detailed earlier Thursday that she had 'walked away' from 'a mix of truth and lies' and now simply wanted to serve her country.
'You see, school shootings are absolutely real, and every child that is lost, those families mourn it,' Greene said during her floor remarks.
'I also want to tell you 9/11 absolutely happened,' she continued. 'I remember that day crying all day long watching it on the news. It's a tragedy for anyone to say it didn't happen. So that I definitely want to tell you. I do not believe that it's fake. I also want to tell you that we've got to do better.'
Previously, Greene touted a view that a plane was not hijacked and flown into the Pentagon as part of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She did not make specific reference to that part of the conspiracy during her time speaking Thursday.
She also was addressing her previous claims that the Parkland and Sandy Hook school shootings were a 'staged event' by firearm regulation activists.
Despite slashing down some of her previous comments and post, Greene did not address some of the other conspiracies she promoted. In particular she did not renounce a lengthy Facebook post that emerged claiming the California wildfires were not natural and instead manually started by the Rothschild's, a wealthy Jewish family, by using space lasers.
She also did not make any mention on the House floor Thursday of her subscribing to a belief Hillary Clinton and longtime aide Huma Abedin cut off a child's face while she was alive and then organized the killing of a cop who knew about it.
Greene also did not say anything about anti-Semitic tropes she pushed.
But the speech - which came with no apology - seemed like too little and too late to save her: Nancy Pelosi had only just said that Democrats will vote to remove Greene from her committee positions and tore into Republicans for not taking action against her from within the Party.
Greene said she turned to QAnon in 2017 because she felt she wasn't getting accurate information from the media or government – especially regarding Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election.
'When we elected President Trump and then I started seeing things in the news that didn't make sense to me, like Russian Collusion, which are conspiracy theories also and have been proven so, these things bothered me deeply,' Greene said of her roots in seeking out an alternate source of information.
'I realized just watching CNN or Fox News, I may not find the truth,' she continued. 'So what I did is I started looking up things on the internet, asking questions, like most people do every day – use Google. And I stumbled across something, and this is at the end of 2017, called QAnon.'
'Well these posts were mainly about this Russian collusion information, a lot of it was some of what I would see on the news at night and I got very interested in it. So I posted about it on Facebook, I read about it, I talked about it, I asked questions about it.'
Reversal: 'I also want to tell you 9/11 absolutely happened. I remember that day crying all day long watching it on the news. It's a tragedy for anyone to say it didn't happen,' Greene told the House
'Later in 2018 when I started finding misinformation, lies, things that were not true in these QAnon posts, I stopped believing it,' Greene said during her floor remarks. 'So I walked away from those things '
While speaking on the floor before the vote on removing her from committee assignments on Thursday, Greene disavowed many of the beliefs pushed by QAnon and said her past social media posts should not be brought up against her regarding her job in Congress
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday Democrats will vote to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from her two committee assignments in a floor vote later in the day
Greene's short speech went from an admission that she had promoted false claims to an attack on her perceived enemies as she claimed: 'Big media companies can take teeny, tiny pieces of words that I've said, that any of you have said, any of us, and can portray us into someone that we're not, and that is wrong.
'Cancel culture is a real thing. It is very real. And when big tech companies like Twitter, you can scroll through and see where someone may have retweeted porn, this is a problem.'
Greene says she 'regrets' asking questions and talking about QAnon openly.
'If it weren't for the Facebook posts and comments that I liked in 2018, I wouldn't be standing here today and you couldn't point a finger and accuse me of anything wrong. Because I've lived a very good life that I'm proud of.... And that's what my district elected me for.'
Greene also said she stopped believing in QAnon when she found out they were mixing facts and lies.
'Later in 2018 when I started finding misinformation, lies, things that were not true in these QAnon posts, I stopped believing it,' Greene asserted. 'And I want to tell you any source – and I say this to everyone – any source of information that is a mix of truth and a mix of lies is dangerous no matter what it is saying, what party it is helping, anything or any country it's about. It's dangerous. And these are the things that happen on the left and the right. And it is a true problem in our country. So I walked away from those things '
Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene arrives on Capitol Hill Thursday as she waits to hear whether she will continue serving in her member capacity on two separate House panels
'Today the House will vote to remove Representative Greene from her seat on Education and Labor and Budget Committees,' Pelosi said during her briefing, adding: 'I remain profoundly concerned about House Republicans' leadership acceptance of extreme conspiracy theorists'
During a Republican conference meeting Wednesday night, Greene disavowed previous beliefs she espoused that fell in line with QAnon conspiracy theories
Greene, according to a person in the room during the meeting, shared a story of a dark period in her life where she turned to QAnon. At one point, Republicans gave her a standing ovation after she said she no longer aligns herself with those beliefs
Pelosi told reporters during her weekly press briefing, before Greene took to the floor that Republicans should have taken independent actions against their own member.
'I remain profoundly concerned about House Republicans' leadership acceptance of extreme conspiracy theorists,' Pelosi told reporters during her weekly press briefing at the Capitol, calling Greene a 'threat'.
'Particularly distributing is their eagerness to reward a QAnon adherent, a 9/11 truther, a harasser of child survivors of school shootings and to give them valued committee positions including – who could imagine that they would put such a person on the Education Committee,' she continued.
As part of her outlandish comments and social media posts, Greene, before she was elected to Congress, backed a call for Pelosi to be executed.
'Today the House will vote to remove Representative Greene from her seat on Education and Labor and Budget Committees,' Pelosi said Thursday.
Pelosi and other Democrats are lashing out at GOP leadership for refusing to take action – instead claiming they appeared to further embrace Greene Wednesday night.
'It's just so unfortunate,' Pelosi said Thursday. 'You would think that the Republican leadership in the Congress would have some sense of responsibility to this institution.
'For some reason, they have chosen not to go down that path,' she continued.
At one point during a five-hour Republican conference meeting on Wednesday, Republicans gave Greene a standing ovation after she finally disavowed many of her previous beliefs, especially QAnon conspiracies she espoused.
'We just had a very good conference meeting together but the number one thing that happened in the conference was unity,' House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters when the caucus finally ended their marathon meeting.
'People were able to air their differences, people are able to focus,' he said. 'The most important part that came out of this conference was where our focus is at.'
After speaking Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced he would move forward with bringing a vote to the floor on removing Greene from the Education and Labor Committee and Budget Committee.
McCarthy proposed to Hoyer during their call that the GOP act from within to proactively remove Greene from the Education and Labor Committee only – or even reassign her to different committees – but the Democratic leader didn't accept the offer.
The California Republican suggested keeping Greene on the Budget Committee but then assigning her to the Small Business Committee, since she is a small business owner, in place of her post on Education and Labor.
'She's a small business owner. So we'd say Budget and Small Business, I was more than willing to do that,' McCarthy said in airing his willingness to compromise with Democrats. 'The conference was willing to do that and Steny Hoyer and the Democrats said no.'
After talks between the parties dissolved Wednesday, McCarthy went all-in on his member.
'Never before in the history of Congress have we allowed the other party to dictate our committees,' McCarthy said regarding Democrats vow to remove Greene if Republicans refused to. 'If they come after her, they'll come after someone else next.'
Now talks on Capitol Hill indicate McCarthy may have successfully rallied the caucus as some Republicans who may have voted with Democrats to remove Greene in the Thursday vote are reconsidering.
A person in the room during the conference meeting Wednesday told Politico Greene appealed to her colleagues, telling a story about a dark period of her life where she turned to QAnon.
After a marathon five-hour Republican conference meeting Wednesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Greene disavowed her previous alignment with QAnon and appeared to embrace backing her against Democrat attacks
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (left) did not take McCarthy's proposal to remove Greene from just one of her committees, instead saying Democrats would move forward with a vote on removal – forcing Republicans to go on-record regarding the controversial representative
But the Georgia congresswoman says she no longer subscribes to these beliefs, walking back on her suggestions that school shootings and a plane hitting the Pentagon on 9/11 were 'hoaxes'.
After she opened up, Representative Tom Reed – a leader among moderate Republicans – thanked her for sharing her story and indicated he would give her a chance to serve without judgement of her past.
Greene also apologized during the meeting for her past comments and social media posts affecting her Republican colleagues.
The controversial freshman representative, however, has still not apologized to Democrats for backing calls for violence against them.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out at McCarthy in a statement Wednesday afternoon, claiming he and the GOP had fully embraced QAnon.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (left) released a statement Wednesday lashing out at McCarthy for allowing the GOP to become the 'Party of QAnon'
In her statement, Pelosi identified McCarthy with a 'Q' next to his name rather than an 'R' for Republican
Pelosi, whom Greene had supported calls for her execution before being elected to Congress, put a 'Q' next to McCarthy's name in place of the usual 'R' to indicate he is a Republican.
'As No 2. Senate Republican John Thune warned Tuesday, McCarthy has chosen to make House Republicans 'the party of conspiracy theories and QAnon' and Rep. Greene is in the driver's seat,' Pelosi wrote in her statement.
When McCarthy was asked after the five-hour conference meeting Wednesday why he decided not to take action against Greene from within the Party, he defended himself, claiming Democrats were to blame for not taking the deal and instead trying to dictate how the GOP's inner workings are handled.
'We were willing to remove her from Ed[ucation] and Labor, and when Steny Hoyer had called me, he said that was the complaint they had going,' McCarthy said.
The argument from removing Greene from just that committee stems from her espousing the conspiracy that Parkland and Sandy Hook shootings were a 'hoax' and in some way 'pre-staged.'
'I want to be very clear,' McCarthy continued, 'we denounce anything that we've seen that was said in that past from anything. QAnon has no place in our party and Marjorie Greene actually said that inside our conference today, she said it before but she said from the shootings and everywhere else.'
Republicans were doing all they could to avoid forcing a floor vote so they wouldn't have to go on record regarding Greene – a move McCarthy fears could further the widening chasm in the embattled GOP.
McCarthy targeted Democrats Wednesday for not holding their own caucus members to the same standards as Republicans.
'They're going to judge her on things that were said that she has now denounced before she was ever a member of Congress,' McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill of House Democrats jump to judge and take action against Greene. 'I just wonder if they take that same standard. Are they gonna leave [Eric] Swalwell on Homeland Security, and on Intel[ligence]. You know, the Speaker has that appointment. She and I were both down in the SCIF (Sensitive compartmented information facility) and we heard what the FBI report was. No way would I ever leave him on Intel nor Homeland. I'd question whether he should be a member of Congress.'
'I wonder if they put the same standard to someone else,' McCarthy continued. 'Never in the history of congress have people been deciding where other parties are putting people on committees.'
Besides attacking Swalwell, who reportedly was in bed with a Chinese spy, McCarthy also questioned if Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar would face backlash for espousing some of the same conspiracies and comments as Greene.
Omar, who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, has made anti-Semtiic tropes, similarly to Greene, and questioned the severity of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, saying 'some people did something.'
Greene started a fundraising campaign off of Democrats' attacks against her, and raised more than $175,000 on Wednesday
She praised the effort on Twitter, claiming: 'The People have my back. And I will always have yours'
'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,' McCarthy said in a statement released Wednesday.
When Pelosi was asked about potential retaliation on Thursday, she quipped back at the reporter.
'Speaker Pelosi are worried at all about the precedent that it would set –' a reporter started, but was cut off by the House speaker.
'None, none at all. None at all,' she defended. '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 all. That's it. Thank you.'
Questions over Greene's sincerity in walking back on past beliefs are circulating, especially after she started fundraising off Democrats' attacks against her.
'UNREAL! $175,000!!' Greene tweeted Wednesday after a slew of posts linking to a page to donate to her campaign fund. 'Thank you to every single America First Patriot who donated to protect my Congressional seat from the Democrat mob.'
'They are attacking me because I'm one of you,' she continued. 'We will not back down. We will never give up!'
In another Twitter post she wrote: 'Thank you to the 13,000 America First Patriots who have sent a message to the radical Democrat mob in the last 48 hours by donating to defend my seat in Congress.'
'The People have my back. And I will always have yours.'
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