WASHINGTON (AP) – Mitch McConnell, leader of the Republican Senate, denounced the newly elected representative Marjorie Taylor Greene yesterday and the far-right Georgia Republican’s embrace of conspiracy theories and ‘loony lies’ ‘a’ cancer for the Republicans Called ‘Party’.
“Someone who suggested that maybe no plane would hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrific shooting incidents had been staged beforehand and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr. is not living in reality,” McConnell, R-Ky, said. . , referring to a handful of conspiracy theories that Greene has revealed in the past. “It has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the strong debates over the content that could strengthen our party.”
McConnell’s explicit condemnation adds to the pressure on Republicans of the House to act against Greene, even as she demands renewed support from former President Donald Trump. It comes as House Democrats moved Monday to deprive Greene of her committee assignments if Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, himself refuses to do so.
“It is my hope and expectation that the Republicans will do the right thing and that Rep. Greene will be held accountable, and we will not have to consider this resolution,” said Steny Hoyer, leader of the House. “But we are willing to do that if necessary.”
So far, however, GOP leaders in the House have been reluctant to criticize Trump supporters, such as Greene, out of concern that they could alienate the former president’s most ardent voters, highlighting a bitter rift over the party’s out of power navigate. the two years until the next congressional election.
Greene responded late Monday to McConnell with a broad side on Twitter, suggesting that “the real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully.”
“That’s why we’re losing our country,” she wrote.
McConnell’s statement in which he criticized Greene was first reported by The Hill.
Democrats’ willingness to take action against a member of the opposing party underscores their desire to confront far-right politicians, such as Greene, who are closely linked to some of Trump’s former supporters, including extremist groups involved in the violence. Capitol uprising.
“If Republicans will not do their own police, the House must step in,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., Who sponsors the measure to remove Greene from her posts on the House’s education and budget committees.
Greene’s view was in the spotlight even before she joined the House last month.
The Republican in Georgia has voiced support for QAnon conspiracy theories, which focus on the downplayed belief that top Democrats are involved in child sex trafficking, Satan worship and cannibalism. Facebook videos surfaced last year showing that she expressed racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views. Top Republicans denounced her at the time, hoping to prevent her from winning the IDP nomination in her trusted red congressional district in northwest Georgia.
But after she won her elementary school, they largely accepted her. Since then, even more of her comments, posts, and videos have been tracked down in the past, though many have recently been removed after attracting attention.
She “likes” Facebook posts advocating violence against Democrats and the FBI. One suggested that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi be shot in the head. In response to a message that the prospect of former pres. To hang Barack Obama, Greene replied that the “stage is set.”
In an undated video posted online, Greene pushed a conspiracy theory that falsely suggests that the massacre in 2017 in which 58 people were killed at a country music festival in Las Vegas could have been a false flag operation to build support for gun control legislation. .
“How do you get avid gun owners and people who support the Second Amendment to give up their weapons and go along with the anti-gun legislation?” Greene said in the video. ‘You scare them, you make them victims and you change their attitude and then you can pass legislation against weapons. Is that what happened in Las Vegas? ”
She also “held” a Facebook entry that challenged the truth of a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. In another video, she is caught confronting the surviving David Hogg, Parkland, in Florida.
After her election, she grabbed Trump’s false allegations that the election had been stolen and applauded his supporters the day before the Capitol stormed.
“This is our 1776 moment!” she posted on the conservative friendly social media platform Parler.
Last week, Pelosi pushed the Republicans of the House to take action.
‘To award her to the Education Committee, when she mocked the murder of little children in Newtown,’ what do they think or do they think too generously a word for what they do? “Pelosi said about Republican leaders. “It’s absolutely horrible.”
In a tweet over the weekend, Greene sounded a defiant tone. She also said she spoke to Trump and was “grateful for his support.”
“I will never stand back and will rise up against the never-ending bloodthirsty crowd,” she tweeted.
McCarthy is scheduled to meet privately with Greene this week. A Republican leader’s spokesman declined to comment Monday.
While it is not certain that he will act against Greene, McCarthy has punished members of the Republican caucus before. Former Representative Steve King, R-Iowa, has been relieved of all committee appointments after expressing support for white supremacists in 2019.
Wasserman Schultz acknowledged Monday that it has long been left to leaders to remove members of Congress from their own party from their committee appointments. But she said Republicans’ unwillingness to take action left Democrats with little choice.
‘Rep. “Greene’s horrific behavior, both before her election and during her term, has contributed to inciting domestic terrorism, endangering the lives of her colleagues and shaming the entire House of Representatives,” said Wasserman Schultz. “In view of her actions and judgments and her resolute refusal to deny them, she may not be allowed to take part in the important work of these two influential committees.”