House Democrats on Monday introduced a resolution to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments over the Georgia Republican’s current and past lies and bigotry.
“Reducing the future harm that she can cause in Congress, and denying her a seat at committee tables… is both a suitable punishment and a proper restraint of her influence.”
—Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
NBC News reports the resolution, sponsored by Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), and Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), will be considered by the House Rules Committee on Wednesday.
Democratic lawmakers were appalled after GOP leadership last week appointed Greene to the House Education and Labor as well as House Budget committees.
“Reducing the future harm that she can cause in Congress, and denying her a seat at committee tables where fact-based policies will be drafted, is both a suitable punishment and a proper restraint of her influence,” Wasserman Schultz said of Greene during a virtual press conference.
“We can’t stop her from speaking,” Wasserman Schultz continued. “What we can do though, is essentially render her nearly powerless. That’s what the intent of this resolution is.”
“If Republicans won’t police their own, the House must step in,” she added.
Group of House Democrats introduce resolution in the House that would remove Rep. Greene from her 2 committee assignments as a consequence for her inflammatory and false statements. https://t.co/0LqdJ3qrYp
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 1, 2021
The lawmakers’ resolution followed a Monday ultimatum from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) warning him that if GOP lawmakers don’t move to oust Greene from her committee assignments withtin 72 hours, Democrats would take the matter to the House floor.
Hoyer said via a spokesperson that Greene “must be held accountable for her reprehensible statements, and I am discussing with members the best course of action to do so.”
Greene, who was elected to represent Georgia’s 14th Congressional District with nearly 75% of votes cast in the November 2020 election, has since become one of the most controversial figures in U.S. politics. Among other things, she has:
- Attempted—along with 146 other Republican lawmakers—to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 Electoral College victory, helping to incite the deadly January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol;
- Shown online support for executing law enforcement officials and prominent Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), former President Barack Obama, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton;
- Indicated support for conspiracy theories including QAnon, Pizzagate, and Frazzledrip;
- Agreed with posts that mass shootings including those at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, and the New Zealand mosque massacre were “false-flag” operations;
- Expressed anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and white supremacist views; and
- Posted menacing campaign imagery targeting progressive Democrats.
Last week, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) announced she was moving her congressional office out of concern for her staff’s safety after Greene and aides “berated” her in a hallway.
School shooting survivors and massacre victims’ parents have been some of the most vocal critics of Greene outside of Congress. Within the legislature, House Democrats have recently moved to censure and even expel Greene. Scores of House lawmakers—including all three sponsors of Monday’s resolution—have called for her expulsion.
The Hill reports Democrats have seized on the controversy surrounding Greene in an attempt to make her the face of the Republican Party in next year’s midterm elections.
Already reeling from the loss of the presidency and the Senate—thanks to the ouster of two incumbent GOP senators in Georgia—some Republican leaders have expressed worries that Greene is tainting the party ticket.
“If you have any common sense, you know she’s an anchor on the party,” Gabriel Sterling, a Republican elections administrator in Georgia, told Politico. “She is weighing us down.”
“Some people are saying maybe… Nancy Pelosi will throw her out” of Congress, Sterling said. “The Democrats would never throw her out. They want her to be the definition of what a Republican is.”
“They’re gonna give her every opportunity to speak and be heard and look crazy—like what came out Wednesday, the Jewish space laser to start fires,” added Sterling. “I mean, I don’t know how far down the rabbit hole you go.”
Greene’s latest ludicrous allegation, tweeted Sunday, accused “all of the people currently frothing with MTG hate” of being “anti-Trump pedos.”
On Monday, Politico reported that Greene claimed she would soon be meeting with President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“He supports me 100%, and I’ve always supported him,” Greene said of the twice-impeached ex-president.