KC area Republicans vote to keep conspiracy theorist Greene on House committees
Every Republican from Missouri and Kansas voted to keep a Georgia congresswoman who claimed the Parkland shooting was a “false flag” on the House Education Committee.
The House voted to 230 to 199 to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a freshman Georgia Republican, from her seats on the Education and Budget committees for a long history of public statements in which she has promoted conspiracy theories, expressed racist and anti-Semitic beliefs and called for violence against Democratic lawmakers.
Eleven Republicans joined House Democrats in voting to oust Greene. She’ll be able continue to vote on the floor, but will be prohibited from participating in hearings or the crafting of bills.
Greene’s assignment to the House Education Committee inspired a national backlash because of her past comments about the 2018 shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people.
After survivors formed the March for Our Lives Campaign, Greene called the massacre a “false flag planned shooting” meant to bolster gun control efforts.
The freshman lawmaker has repeatedly promoted the fringe QAnon conspiracy, whose adherents believe former President Donald Trump is at war with a secret cabal of pedophiles.
Greene distanced herself from the conspiracy theory in a floor speech Thursday, but she had posted about it favorably on social media as recently as December, a month after election to Congress.
Republicans objected to Democrats’ decision to remove Greene from the committees for statements made before she was sworn into Congress. Democrats called the unprecedented move necessary because of Greene’s extremism.
“St. Louis and I rise in defense of our nation’s schoolchildren. I cannot sit idly by and allow white supremacy to have decision making power over our children’s future,” said Rep. Cori Bush, a freshman Democratic lawmaker from Missouri. Last week, after a hallway altercation with Greene, she requested that her office be moved away from Greene’s for the safety of her staff.
“To our Republican colleagues, let history remember what you did in this moment. A prerequisite for these committees must mean you love and represent all people,” Bush said.
Missouri Republican Rep. Ann Wagner, whose St. Louis area district borders Bush’s, condemned Greene’s past comments as anti-Semitic and offensive, saying they were “untethered from reality” and “should be shunned by all Americans.”
But Wagner also said that removing Greene from her committees would set a bad precedent.
“I spoke with Representative Greene one on one last night and she made it clear to me she no longer believes the dangerous views espoused in her previous statements, and that she will not advance such views as a Member of Congress… For now, I will take her at her word, but I will be watching,” Wagner said in a statement.
Kansas Rep. Ron Estes, a Republican who represents the Wichita area, raised similar concerns about the process.
“I categorically reject the past comments made by the representative from Georgia. Today Speaker Pelosi took what should have been handled by the House Ethics Committee and turned it into a partisan stunt – ignoring the need to get Americans back to work,” Estes said in a statement.
Other Republicans in the delegation declined to comment. Missouri Reps. Sam Graves and Vicky Hartzler did not return requests for comment. Kansas Reps. Jake LaTurner and Tracey Mann were also silent.
Democrats moved forward with the resolution to remove Greene from her committees after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, declined to do so on his own.
McCarthy stripped Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King of his committees seat in 2019 after King made racist comments in The New York Times, but McCarthy drew a distinction because King was a member of congress when he made those statements.
“They’re going to judge her on things that were said, that she has now denounced, before she was ever a member of Congress… The voters decided she could come and serve,” said McCarthy, who voted last month to overturn the presidential election results of two states.
The vote to remove Greene comes less than one month after the Capitol was attacked by a mob, which included white nationalists and adherents to the QAnon conspiracy, and after the majority of House Republicans voted to overturn the election.
“I think it’s still very raw,” Rep. Sharice Davids, Kansas’ sole Democrat, said in a phone call Thursday when asked how Congress could heal after the tumultuous month.
“Right now there’s a debate going on about what level of accountability my Republican colleagues are going to hold themselves to,” Davids said.
