Democrats seek to censure, expel QAnon-backing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
One resolution would formally rebuke Trump-backing congresswoman, another would remove her from all committee assignments and third would boot her from House entirely
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US House Democrats are advancing a series of resolutions targeting Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, that range from censuring the far-right representative for advancing a host of dangerous conspiracy theories, to removing her from any assigned committee to expelling her from the House altogether.
Greene has a history of making racist remarks, embracing conspiracy theories and endorsing violence directed at Democrats, but a number of particularly incendiary posts have been uncovered in recent days. Those come against the backdrop of the deadly storming of the Capitol on January 6 by supporters of former US President Donald Trump, who falsely claimed, along with Taylor-Greene, that the presidential election had been “stolen.”
The least severe of three resolutions against Greene is a censure, or formal statement of disapproval. That proposal is being advanced by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri), who announced last week that she would be moving her office away from Greene’s “for [her] team’s safety” after multiple altercations with the Republican representative and her staff.
This is the resolution most likely to pass as only a majority is needed and the Democratic caucus on its own is large enough to cover that.
More severe is a resolution introduced Monday by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Shultz (D-Florida) which seeks to remove Greene from her assignments on the House education and budget committees.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced the vote, scheduled for Thursday, after the Republican minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, failed to act against the Georgia congresswoman who has peddled conspiracy theories and endorsed calls for violence against her colleagues.
The resolution also has a good chance of passing in the Democrat-controlled House, given that only a simple majority is needed.
The most far-reaching resolution will be introduced Friday by Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-California) and calls for Greene’s expulsion from the House of Representatives. It has already garnered 70 Democratic co-sponsors.
An aide familiar with the measure explained that the conspiracy theories backed by Greene helped spark the violence at the Capitol last month and that there is no place in Congress for the Georgia representative as a result.
The aide noted that Gomez is taking a personal risk in advancing the resolution as his office has received several death threats after he announced the measure.
The likelihood the resolution passes appears slim as a two-thirds majority is required — meaning 68 Republicans would be required to vote with the entire Democratic caucus.
The last times Congress voted to expel a member was in 2002 and 1980, but those were to boot representatives after they’d been convicted of bribery. Before that, no member was expelled since the Civil War period, and those removed were supporters of the Confederacy.
But Greene indeed represents a unique case.
The Georgia Republican has expressed support for QAnon conspiracy theories, which focus on the debunked belief that top Democrats are involved in child sex trafficking, Satan worship and cannibalism.
One of her conspiracy theory-filled Facebook posts from 2018, uncovered last week, theorized that the Rothschild family was involved in starting California wildfires using lasers from space. Invoking conspiratorial control by the Rothschild banking family over world events is an age-old anti-Semitic stereotype, and it is also a theme in the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory that Greene has promoted.
She “liked” Facebook posts that advocated violence against Democrats and the FBI. One suggested shooting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the head. In response to a post raising the prospect of hanging former President Barack Obama, Greene responded that the “stage is being set.”
In an undated video posted online, Greene floated a conspiracy theory that falsely suggests that the 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people 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 that support the Second Amendment to give up their guns and go along with anti-gun legislation?” Greene said in the video. “You make them scared, you make them victims and you change their mindset and then possibly you can pass anti-gun legislation. Is that what happened in Las Vegas?”
She also “liked” a Facebook post that challenged the veracity of a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Another video captured her confronting Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg.
Top Republicans denounced Greene prior to her election, hoping to block her from capturing the GOP nomination in her reliably red congressional district in northwest Georgia.
But after she won her primary, they largely accepted her. Since then, even more of her past comments, postings and videos have been unearthed, though many were deleted recently after drawing attention.
Distancing himself from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who has yet to take a firm position on Greene, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday called the far-right congresswoman’s embrace of conspiracy theories and “loony lies” a “cancer for the Republican Party.”
“Somebody who’s suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.’s airplane is not living in reality,” said McConnell.
Greene retorted, saying: “The real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully. This is why we are losing our country.”
Greene tweeted fundraising appeals Tuesday that said, “With your support, the Democrat mob can’t cancel me,” beneath a picture of herself standing with Trump.
JTA contributed to this report.
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