Gut check.
Congratulations to House Republicans, all 211 of whom will now have to cast a vote on this matter and decide whether they want to be known as QAnon apologists or as backstabbers. Do you side with the crazy lady who thought Parkland and Sandy Hook were false flags orchestrated by gun-grabbers? Or do you side with Democrats at a moment when they’re ganging up on a Trump-backed Republican freshman? Kevin McCarthy could have spared them from that decision if he had sacked up and pushed Greene out. But he’d rather force his caucus to take a hard vote than make a hard decision himself, so here we are. Frankly, I’m surprised that Pelosi, Hoyer, and House Dems want to go down this road knowing that the GOP base will demand a reprisal once Republicans control the House majority again. Kicking Greene off her committees today means Ilhan Omar will be kicked off her committees in 2023, yet Democrats are willing to do it anyway. Maybe… the Democratic establishment considers that not such a bad outcome? They also seem confident that making an example of Greene and raising her national profile will redound to their electoral advantage in 2022. Which is odd, because we just ran an experiment on that theory, didn’t we? Donald Trump is a million times better known than Greene and was sufficiently toxic to the electorate in November to generate 81 million votes for a lackluster generic Democrat. And yet Trump’s toxicity didn’t translate downballot. Republicans overperformed in House and Senate races because, it seems, swing voters concluded that his worst attributes weren’t representative of his entire party. Many voters decided that he was unfit for office but that the GOPers who enabled him were not. Why would it be any different with Greene in 2022? If Trump wasn’t the face of the party last November 3, why would she be the face of the party in the midterms? Either way, the die is cast: I spoke to Leader McCarthy this morning, and it is clear there is no alternative to holding a Floor vote on the resolution to remove Rep. Greene from her committee assignments. The Rules Committee will meet this afternoon, and the House will vote on the resolution tomorrow. Steny (Wear a Mask) Hoyer (@LeaderHoyer) February 3, 2021 I guess Omar doesn’t care much about her committee assignments because she’s fully onboard: Republicans desperate bad faith ploy to justify bigotry must be defeated. They can not succeed in bullying their way out of accountability. That’s why this vote matters. https://t.co/UHTveanYwf — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 3, 2021 Some of the MAGA members in the House are already pushing a resolution to try to get her kicked off committees too but the eye-for-an-eye outcome here will need to wait a few years.
