One of the top Democrats in the House asserted that the Republican conference has been taken over by the “crackpot caucus” in light of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene‘s positions on House committees.
“There are broader concerns with the fact that the House Republican Conference appears to have been taken over by the conspiracy caucus, the crackpot caucus, and the QAnon caucus at the same time,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York said in a press conference on Wednesday. “Clearly, there are Senate Republicans concerned with that situation. America should be concerned with that situation.”
His comments come as the Georgia congresswoman faces removal from her posts on the House Education and Labor and House Budget committees after more than a week of vocal outrage from members of Congress over Greene’s past comments in support of conspiracy theories such as QAnon and 9/11 trutherism and social media interactions that some took as threatening violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“She clearly believes that Parkland didn’t happen and that those young people weren’t murdered. Those families are suffering as a result of that school shooting. And that Sandy Hook didn’t happen. How can you put someone who is a mass shooting denier, who mocks the survivors of Parkland, on the Education Committee?” Jeffries said.
Some Senate Republicans have chimed in with their disapproval of Greene.
“Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country. 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,” McConnell said in a statement earlier this week. “This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.”
North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer told CNN: “I don’t think very many Republicans at all would adhere to her philosophy, but the tent can only be so big.”
Republicans on the House side, meanwhile, worry about what kind of precedent it would set to remove Greene when some of her most controversial statements were made before she was a member of Congress and, in some cases, before she was a candidate. Her comments were made public during the campaign, and she was elected anyway.
Jeffries brushed off those concerns about precedent.
“This is not a partisan issue about precedent that may be established. If we’re compelled to act to address a situation that Kevin McCarthy should address himself,” Jeffries said about the House minority leader.
