Democrats pressed past Republicans’ objections to remove the Georgia freshman from her two committee posts in a vote without precedent in the modern Congress.
The House on Thursday exiled Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from congressional committees, blacklisting the first-term Georgian for endorsing the executions of Democrats and spreading dangerous and bigoted misinformation even as fellow Republicans rallied around her. The House voted 230 to 199 to remove Ms. Greene from the Education and Budget Committees, with only 11 Republicans joining Democrats to support the move. The action came after Ms. Greene’s past statements and espousing of QAnon and other conspiracy theories had pushed her party to a political crossroads. The vote effectively stripped Ms. Greene of her influence in Congress by banishing her from committees critical to advancing legislation and conducting oversight. Party leaders traditionally control the membership of the panels. While Democrats and Republicans have occasionally moved to punish their own members by stripping them of assignments, the majority has never in modern times moved to do so to a lawmaker in the other party. In emotional remarks on the House floor, Ms. Greene expressed regret on Thursday for her previous comments and disavowed many of her most outlandish and repugnant statements. She said she believed that the Sept.11,2001, attacks “absolutely happened” and that school shootings were “absolutely real” after previously suggesting that aspects of both were staged. But wearing a mask emblazoned with the phrase “Free Speech,” Ms. Greene did not apologize over the course of her roughly eight-minute speech. Instead, she portrayed her comments as “words of the past” that “do not represent me,” and she warned that if lawmakers wanted to “crucify” her, it would create a “big problem.” Democrats argued that Ms. Greene’s comments — and Republican leaders’ refusal to take action against her — had required unusual action. In social media posts made before she was elected, Ms. Greene endorsed executing top Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi; suggested a number of school shootings were secretly perpetrated by government actors; and repeatedly trafficked in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic conspiracy theories. “You would think that the Republican leadership in the Congress would have some sense of responsibility to this institution,” Ms. Pelosi said. “For some reason, they’ve chosen not to go down that path.” Republicans themselves moved against Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, in 2019 over comments in which he questioned why the term “white supremacist” was considered offensive, stripping him of his committee assignments. But they refused to take similar action against Ms. Greene. The vote on Thursday presented Republicans with the uncomfortable choice of either appearing to endorse Ms. Greene’s ugly remarks or breaking with their party — and with former President Donald J. Trump, who has effusively praised her. Following the lead of Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the top House Republican, many argued that although they disapproved of her remarks, they objected to the precedent Democrats were setting.
