House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is trying to prevent a floor vote on whether to strip one of his caucus members from her committee assignments.
In a conversation with the group that designates committee assignments on Tuesday night, McCarthy reportedly said he was going to offer House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer to remove Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from the Education and Labor Committee in order to prevent a vote on the House floor to remove her from that and the House Budget Committee, according to Politico.
The top House Republican’s conversation with the Steering Committee came after he met with Greene, but no final decisions were made at the conclusion of either meeting.
Republican leadership could decide to strip Greene of her committee assignments instead of making caucus members publicly support her amid the litany of conspiracy theories that she has espoused or making them jump ship to join the Democrats, many of whom want her expelled from Congress.
McCarthy’s efforts were unsuccessful as Hoyer announced on Wednesday that there will be a floor vote Thursday to determine whether she keeps her committee seats.
“I spoke to Leader McCarthy this morning, and it is clear there is no alternative to holding a Floor vote on the resolution to remove Rep. Greene from her committee assignments,” he said in a statement. “The Rules Committee will meet this afternoon, and the House will vote on the resolution tomorrow.”
Greene has garnered national attention in recent weeks as social media comments and posts from before she was elected resurfaced. Her social media history includes doubting the veracity of mass shootings and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the promotion of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and support for violence against Democrats.
Some House Republicans have come to Greene’s defense, saying the effort is an example of cancel culture.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs and fellow Freedom Caucus member Jim Jordan defended Greene on Tuesday. In a statement, Biggs said Democrats such as California Rep. Maxine Waters, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who made provocative statements in the past, were never punished by the House Democratic Caucus.
“Many members of the radical Left in Congress have advocated for violence, anti-Semitism, anti-law enforcement, and other sentiments that have violated rules of decorum and principles of American decency. The Left, and their allies in the mainstream media, have ignored and buried these egregious statements, while projecting their sins upon Republicans,” Biggs said. “The American people are repulsed by this hypocritical double standard and overt attempt to remove Republicans from power.”
House Democrats Hoyer and Waters dismissed these comparisons.
“There’s absolutely no analogy to any member on our side of the aisle, period. Any analogy that they try to make is a specious one,” Hoyer told the Washington Examiner. “Greene, and unfortunately a number of others, are in a class by themselves in the context of an insurrection of violence being perpetrated against the House, against democracy, and against the counting of the presidential election. There’s no precedent for this.”
Greene’s support in the House was stauncher than the support from Senate colleagues.
“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,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement. “This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Hoyer’s statement announcing the floor vote was added after the initial publication of this story.
