Andrew Harnik / AP / dpa
Washington
A Republican MP known as a supporter of conspiracy theories has to vacate her posts on several committees in the US Congress over highly controversial statements.
The House of Representatives voted on Thursday evening (local time) to kick Marjorie Taylor Greene from the education and labor committees and the budget committee. 219 Democrats and 11 Republicans supported the move, 199 Republicans were against. Greene is an ardent supporter of ex-President Donald Trump and a mouthpiece for right-wing ideas.
Greene herself expressed her regret about individual remarks from the past shortly before the vote. Democrats dismissed this as half-hearted and unreliable. The step of kicking them out of the committees is, however, highly unusual, because normally the parliamentary groups regulate the composition of committees. The Republican minority leader in the chamber, Kevin McCarthy, had previously refused to demote Greene.
The Georgia MP has had a seat in the House of Representatives since January. The 46-year-old excelled with theses of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Its supporters believe, for example, that Trump was trying to expose systematic child abuse by satanic US Democratic politicians.
The right-wing Republican is not only controversial because of her QAnon sympathies. Among other things, she is said to have questioned the September 11, 2001 attacks. The election of several Muslim Democratic MPs to the House of Representatives a good two years ago she called “an Islamic invasion” in a video. US media report, citing social media posts from recent years that have now mostly been deleted, that Greene “Like” a Facebook post in January 2019 in which a user suggested the chairman of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi To shoot “a bullet in the head”.
A conspiracy theory, according to which the school massacre in Parkland 2018 was staged, Greene commented with “Exactly!”, The reports said. In 2018, for example, she shared on Facebook that Pelosi wanted further school massacres in order to tighten US gun laws.
Greene spoke up on Thursday and expressed her regret about individual remarks from the past. In 2018 she followed the theses of the QAnon conspiracy theory for a while – out of distrust of the government – and also spread them. She believed things that were not true. “I’m very sorry.” That’s why she renounced it.
Greene insisted she said nothing about it during her campaign or her time in Congress. “Those were words from the past.” They are not an expression of their values. In contrast to earlier statements, the Republican also emphasized that school massacres and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were real. “I don’t think that’s made up.”
Democrat Jim McGovern accused Greene of regretting only part of her 2018 remarks in her speech. But he did not hear any excuse for various dangerous and shocking statements from other years. Greene also recently described QAnon supporters as patriots.
Greene is highly controversial not only among Democrats but also among their Republicans. Their Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, recently warned: “Crazy lies and conspiracy theories are cancerous for the Republican Party and our country.” He did not name Greene, but the addressee of his words seemed clear. Greene quickly returned the favor on Twitter, stating that “the real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans”.
She also distributed in the direction of the Democrats: Greene only told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that the Democrats’ actions against them in Congress were stupid. “They don’t even realize they are helping me. I’m pretty amazed at how stupid they are. ”Greene claims to have raised record highs since the Democrats in Washington put pressure on them.
The Republican faction had long discussed how to deal with Greene on Wednesday evening (local time). The Washington Post wrote that the MP also showed remorse for some of her controversial statements at the meeting – and received a lot of applause at the end.
Pelosi, who was herself the target of Greene’s verbal attack, said Thursday she was very concerned that the Republican leadership in the chamber was accepting extreme conspiracy theories among their ranks. It is regrettable that the Republican leadership did not act out of responsibility to Congress and withdrew the MPs from the committees.
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