WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats planned a showdown vote for Thursday over stripping Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments for her endorsement of racist and conspiratorial…
By ALAN FRAM, BRIAN SLODYSKO and KEVIN FREKING WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats planned a showdown vote for Thursday over stripping Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments for her endorsement of racist and conspiratorial views, as the chamber’s top Republican signaled he would not bow to bipartisan demands to punish her. The decision by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., came Wednesday as Republicans also grappled over what to do about Rep. Liz Cheney, their No.3 leader, after she backed Donald Trump’s impeachment. The decisions over how to handle the two Republican lawmakers subjected the GOP to a politically agonizing test of its direction as it moves beyond Donald Trump’s presidency. Democrats increased the pressure by planning a House vote on removing Greene from her committees for her embrace of calls to violence against Democrats and bizarre fictions about faked school shootings. But shortly after the Democratic-led House Rules Committee cleared the way for Thursday’s vote, McCarthy released a statement saying Democrats were “choosing to raise the temperature” by attempting a “partisan power grab.” He condemned Greene’s past endorsements of conspiracy theories — after weeks of saying little critical of her — and said the first-term Georgia congresswoman had recognized in a private conversation that she must meet “a higher standard” as a lawmaker. “I hold her to her word, as well as her actions going forward,” McCarthy said. Separately, House Republicans were meeting privately Wednesday about an effort by Trump loyalists to push Cheney out of her leadership post. That move was sparked after Cheney, a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a fixture of the party establishment, became one of just 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump last month. “I won’t apologize for the vote,” Cheney told her colleagues, according to a person familiar with the session who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting. During a break in that closed-door session, McCarthy told reporters he’d defended Cheney inside.
