Republicans Against Greene: QAnon supporter is loose committee post

Friday, February 05, 2021

Republicans against Greene too
QAnon supporter is going to waste

Republican Taylor Greene has been in the US House of Representatives since January. The Trump supporter is known for the
Spreading confused conspiracy theories. As a consequence, the politician has to vacate several seats in committees of the Congress.

A Republican MP known as a supporter of conspiracy theories has to vacate her posts on several committees in the US Congress over highly controversial statements. The House of Representatives voted on Thursday evening (local time) to kick Marjorie Taylor Greene from the Education and Labor Committees and the Budget Committee. 219 Democrats and 11 Republicans supported the move, 199 Republicans were against.

Greene is an ardent supporter of ex-President Donald Trump and a mouthpiece for right-wing ideas. Shortly before the vote, Greene expressed her regret about individual remarks from the past. Democrats dismissed this as half-hearted and unreliable. The step of kicking them out of the committees is, however, highly unusual, because normally the parliamentary groups regulate the composition of committees. The Republican minority leader in the chamber, Kevin McCarthy, had previously refused to demote Greene.

The Georgia MP has had a seat in the House of Representatives since January. The 46-year-old excelled with theses of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Its supporters believe, for example, that Trump tried to expose systematic child abuse by satanist politicians of the US Democrats. The right-wing Republican is not only controversial because of her QAnon sympathies. Among other things, she is said to have questioned the attacks of September 11, 2001. The election of several Muslim Democratic MPs to the House of Representatives two years ago she called "an Islamic invasion" in a video.

US media reports, citing social media posts from the past few years that have now mostly been deleted, that Greene "Like" a Facebook post in January 2019 in which a user suggested the chairman of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi to "shoot a bullet in the head". A conspiracy theory, according to which the school massacre in Parkland 2018 was staged, Greene had with "Exactly!" commented, it said in the reports. In 2018, for example, she also spread on Facebook that Pelosi wanted more school massacres in order to tighten US gun laws.

Greene expresses regret

Greene spoke up on Thursday and expressed regret about individual remarks from the past. In 2018 she followed the theses of the QAnon conspiracy theory for a while – out of distrust of the government – and also spread them. She believed things that were not true. "I'm very sorry about that." That is why she renounced it.

Greene insisted she said nothing about it during her campaign or her time in Congress. "Those were words from the past." They are not an expression of their values. In contrast to earlier statements, the Republican also emphasized that school massacres and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were real. "I don't think that's made up."

Democrat Jim McGovern accused Greene of regretting only part of her 2018 remarks in her speech. But he did not hear any excuse for various dangerous and shocking statements from other years. Greene also recently described QAnon supporters as patriots.

Greene is highly controversial not only among Democrats but also among their Republicans. Their Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, recently warned: "Crazy lies and conspiracy theories are cancerous for the Republican Party and our country." He did not mention Greene by name, but the addressee of his words seemed clear. Greene quickly returned the favor on Twitter, stating "the real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans".

Pelosi is concerned

She also distributed to the Democrats: Greene only told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that the Democrats' actions against them in Congress were stupid. "They don't even realize they are helping me. I'm quite amazed at how stupid you are." Greene claims to have raised a record number of donations since the Washington Democrats put pressure on her.

The Republican faction had long discussed how to deal with Greene on Wednesday evening (local time). The Washington Post wrote that the MP also showed remorse for some of her controversial statements at the meeting – and received a lot of applause at the end.

Pelosi, who was herself the target of Greene's verbal attack, said Thursday she was very concerned that the Republican leadership in the chamber was accepting extreme conspiracy theories among their ranks. It is regrettable that the Republican leadership did not act out of responsibility to Congress and withdrew the MPs from the committees.