Democrats on Monday unveiled legislation to remove Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from the House budget and education committees.
House Democratic leaders are threatening to move forward with the bill if Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy doesn’t unilaterally yank Greene from the posts.
The legislation, sponsored by former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), was introduced as House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) privately lobbied McCarthy (R-Calif.).
The two-page bill reads: “Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene should be removed from her committee assignments in light of conduct she has exhibited.”
It doesn’t cite specific offenses to justify removal, but Democrats have blasted the just-sworn-in congresswoman for a litany of remarks reflecting either strident political rhetoric or open-mindedness to conspiracy theories.
The Democrats move came just hours before Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell denounced Taylor Greene, calling the far-right Georgia Republican’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, R-Ky., referring to a handful of conspiracy theories that Greene has publicized in the past. “This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.”
Hoyer, meanwhile, said in a statement, “It is my hope and expectation that Republicans will do the right thing and hold Rep. Greene accountable, and we will not need to consider this resolution. But we are prepared to do so if necessary.”
Some reports say that Hoyer gave McCarthy 72 hours to make up his mind.
Expulsion from the House requires a two-thirds vote and is considered unlikely.
Democrats have used Greene’s conduct to suggest Republicans are too close to unhinged political figures following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but Republicans have sought to avoid a showdown on Greene in favor of reunifying the party.
Greene on Saturday boasted of receiving a phone call from former President Donald Trump.
Enraging Democrats, Greene has floated the possibility that mass-shootings are “false flag” operations by gun control advocates and said it’s possible the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon wasn’t the result of a hijacked airplane.
The congresswoman reportedly “liked” a Facebook post that said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should be executed.
–with Post wires
