Republicans in the House of Representatives have said that Marjorie Taylor Greene will be given committee assignments once she arrives in Congress. This would be an unforced error by the GOP.
Greene won the GOP primary in Georgia’s 14th District, the 10th most Republican district in the country. Many House Republicans had lined up behind Greene’s Republican opponent, including Minority Whip Steve Scalise, but Greene won the runoff for the seat with the backing of the House Freedom Caucus.
Greene promotes the QAnon conspiracy theory, where an anonymous person “Q” claims to be a government official with intelligence clearance and makes largely evidence-free claims about a “deep state” sex trafficking ring that eats children and that Bill Gates created the coronavirus, among other absurdities.
Greene has also engaged in 9/11 trutherism, and while she will be the first QAnon promoter in Congress, she may not be the only one. House Republicans ought to nip this in the bud and send a message that conspiracy theorists aren’t going to be rewarded with committee assignments.
Republicans already took such a stand with Steve King, the now-outgoing congressman whose track record of racist comments finally culminated in him losing his committee assignments. Republican voters tossed King in part because he had no power to deliver for his district. Denying Greene committee seats on arrival would let Republicans know that, much like King’s racism, absurd conspiracy theorists have no spot at the top of the party.
Republicans were willing to make a far braver stand, coming out against Roy Moore in the 2017 Alabama Senate special election. Enough GOP voters decided not to vote for Moore, leading to Democrat Doug Jones trimming the GOP’s Senate margin. If Republicans can sacrifice a Senate seat to keep the party respectable, denying a first-term House member a committee seat for two years should be nothing.
The Republican Party already has to deal with the never-ending assault from the media, universities, and the cultural elite. That doesn’t mean it has to make it easy for them by welcoming members such as Greene. Let Democrats, with Ilhan Omar and “the Squad,” be the party of kooks and conspiracy nuts.
