In an unprecedented punishment in the US Congress, the House of Representatives voted this Thursday, February 4, in favor of removing from one of Donald Trump’s followers the assignments she had in two high-profile committees. The cause of the expulsion was to have promoted through their social networks violence against Democrats, racism and conspiracy theories.
House Democrats won their tide and got the majority they needed to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her assignments on the Budget and Education and Labor committees.
This Wednesday’s vote was divided between 230 votes in favor and 199 against. As expected, a handful of Republicans – 11 in all – backed the resolution the Democrats tabled against Greene.
In practice, stripping a congressman of their committee assignments deprives them of the benefits they derive from that position, such as helping to address the needs of their districts, increasing campaign contributions, and shaping legislation. Furthermore, it is unusual for party leaders to expel legislators from committees.
Comments on social networks, the reason for the punishment
Despite the rarity of this punishment in the US Congress, Democrats claimed that Greene deserved expulsion for the racist and violent comments she had posted on her social media before being elected as a representative to the House for the state of Georgia, in the last elections in November.
One of Greene’s posts said that blacks “are slaves to the Democratic Party.” Others endorsed conspiracy theories circulating online thanks to QAnon, a group that believes Donald Trump is fighting a “deep state” and a chain of pedophiles.
The representative suggested that the 2018 shooting at the Parkland, Florida school was staged to disguise the perpetrators. He also pointed out that the killing of 58 people at the hands of a man who fired from a hotel room in Las Vegas in 2017 was a secret plot to generate support for gun control legislation.
In this regard, Greene said in a video: “I don’t think (gunman Stephen Paddock) has achieved this on his own, and I know that most of you neither (…) What is the best way to control people ? You have to take away their weapons ”.
Greene even suggested that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the Pentagon were a hoax, by questioning whether a plane had actually crashed into the military center.
One of Greene’s most criticized comments was the one he made against the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi. Greene stated that the representative was guilty of “treason” and that this was a “crime that could be punishable by death.” In addition, he ‘liked’ a Facebook post where a user requested “a bullet to the head” from Pelosi.
Many of Greene’s posts on her social media continued to air as she took office in Congress. But, later, these were eliminated after the liberal group Media Matters denounced them publicly.
The apologies that never came
It was precisely these comments that prompted the Democratic Party to propose a resolution to remove Greene from the two legislative committees he was on. The representative tried to convince her colleagues on Wednesday by moving away from what she called “words from the past.”
Greene said she was a “very ordinary American” who spoke publicly about the conspiracy theories of the QAnon group before campaigning for Congress, but now believed that the September 11 attacks and mass shootings in schools were real. .
Today, I rose in objection to the unprecedented attempt by the Democrat majority to remove me from my committee seats.
I’ve never been more proud to represent the people of NW Georgia.
(Part One) pic.twitter.com/vC63T03zhU
– Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) February 4, 2021
As for her comments about Pelosi, the representative sought to justify herself by equating her own endorsement of the violence with the support that Democrats showed for the racial justice protests in mid-2020, which sometimes ended in riots. Greene did not explicitly apologize for his posts against Pelosi or for other comments. Ultimately, she described herself as the victim of unscrupulous “big media companies”.
Between tradition and Trump supporters: the position of the Republicans
Greene’s words did not convince some of his supporters. The leader of the Republicans in the House, Kevin McCarthy, maintained that the comments on social networks of the Georgia congresswoman “do not represent” the views of her party.
Since last Monday, the leader in the Senate of the Republicans took an even tougher position. Mitch McConnell put out a statement about the debate to Greene, saying that “someone who suggested that maybe no planes hit the Pentagon on September 11, that horrific school shootings were pre-planned and that the Clintons crashed John F. Kennedy Jr. is not living in reality. ”
McConnell even said that “crazy lies and conspiracy theories are a cancer for the Republican Party and the country,” and that none of these positions was related to the substantive debates that the political party might have.
Greene’s supporters did not defend the social media posts that brought her to the center of legislative debate Wednesday. Instead, Republicans concentrated on saying that the expulsion of the representative from the committees set a bitter precedent for the Democrats’ meddling in the affairs of a rival party. “Never before in the history of this House has the majority abused their power in this way,” McCarthy lamented and warned that they would soon regret that decision.
On the other political side, the chairman of the House Rules Committee, Democrat Jim McGovern, noted that while Greene regretted some of his comments, he did not do the same in front of Pelosi’s.
“I did not hear an apology or complaint for the suggestion that political opponents should be treated with violence,” McGovern said. “It is not ancient history. She continues to raise funds with these things, “he concluded.
Hours before the vote, Pelosi supported the idea of expelling Greene from the committees and maintained that if one of the Democrats threatened “the safety of other members,” the party would be the first to strip them of their committee duties.
But more than the position of the Democrats, today’s debate on Greene’s comments highlights the dispute within the Republican Party. Members most attached to tradition fear that the more radical wing – related to conspiracyists and white supremacy movements – will steal their collective identity. But, at the same time, they have not vehemently rejected those currents for fear of losing votes among Trump supporters.
With AP, Reuters and EFE
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source https://pledgetimes.com/us-house-expels-republican-marjorie-taylor-greene-from-committees/
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