This will come back to haunt you.
That’s the message from House Republicans on Wednesday to their Democratic colleagues as the majority party moves to oust Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments due to incendiary social media posts by the Georgia Republican from before her 2020 election.
Democrats are set on Thursday to strip Greene of her posts on the House Education and Labor Committee and the House Budget Committee. Democrats say it’s necessary because House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and members of the Republican Steering Committee, which makes committee assignments, are unwilling to punish Greene over Facebook posts and tweets sympathetic to QAnon and promoting violence against members of Congress.
Still, it’s the first time in recent memory that the majority party has gone after committee spots of the minority. And it is a move that Republicans say sets an awful precedent.
After all, they note, should Republicans win the majority in the 2022 elections, they could do the same to any Democratic lawmakers. And with the House narrowly divided, at 222 Democrats and 211 Republicans, a change in party control is a real possibility.
“It is a horrible precedent for this institution,” North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry, a member of the Republican Steering Committee, told the Washington Examiner.
Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert told the Washington Examiner about the possibility of Democrats being denied committee spots if they lose the majority.
“Absolutely. 100%,” he said. “They’ll start a war, and they won’t like where it goes.”
The chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, said, “Hey, tit for tat,” when asked if Republicans would strip Democrats of their committee assignments when they have the majority next.
“They’re taking somebody and saying, ‘When you were a private citizen, you said these things that we find to be offensive and terrible.’ And maybe they’re right,” Biggs told the Washington Examiner. “But that’s the First Amendment, and now, without even going to Ethics Committee, which would have had jurisdiction, this is removal from committee. You open a box for any member of the minority of any committee you want.”
Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, who serves on the Republican Steering Committee, said the Democrats’ plan to remove Greene from her committees is a “slippery slope.”
