Thanks to House Republicans circling the wagons around Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her history of truly gross statements and actions, Democrats had to hold a full House vote to strip her of committee assignments. That included an assignment to the education committee despite her claims that the school massacres at Sandy Hook and Parkland were hoaxes.
Thursday evening, the House voted 230-199—with 11 Republicans voting with the Democrats— to remove Greene from her committees. It is, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “unfortunate” that it came to that. “You would think that the Republican leadership in the Congress would have some sense of responsibility to this situation,” she said. But they did not.
In 2019, Republicans stripped then-Rep. Steve King of committee assignments after he said “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization—how did that language become offensive?” Two years later, past comments and social media activity enthusiastic about the assassination of Democratic leaders won’t do it, even in the wake of a violent insurrection that Greene arguably helped incite.
Many Senate Republicans have gone beyond denouncing Greene’s comments to call her a danger to the party, but House Republicans simply weren’t willing to take action—where they’re concerned, she is an important part of the coalition they’re building between the far right and the far far right.
