House Democrats have succeeded in their push to punish freshman Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) over a series of controversial remarks she made before she became a congresswoman and her adherence to conspiracy theories.
In a 230 -199 vote on Thursday night, lawmakers voted to advance a resolution to strip Greene of her committee assignments.
Eleven Republican voted in favor of the resolution, just one more than the number of Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump last month.
#BREAKING: U.S. House votes to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) from committees, 230-199. pic.twitter.com/hdcw0wzpym
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 4, 2021
House Republicans decided against moving to strip Greene of her committee assignments on Wednesday night.
Democrats had called for Republicans to punish Greene over her past controversial comments and apparent endorsement of violence against prominent Democratic politicians.
After Republicans declined to punish Greene, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said, “Anybody who advocates assassinations of members of Congress or anybody, I don’t believe, should enjoy the privilege of serving on a committee.”
He also argued Greene should resign or be expelled from Congress.
In a speech before the vote, Greene renounced her past comments as she said, “These were words of the past, and these things do not represent me, they do not represent my (congressional) district, and they do not represent my values.”
“I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true, and I would ask questions about them and talk about them. And that is absolutely what I regret,” she added.
Greene previously claimed that an airplane did not hit the Pentagon during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and that deadly school shootings did not occur.
But in the same speech, she said, “You see, school shootings are absolutely real, and every child that is lost, those families mourn it.”
“I also want to tell you, 9/11 absolutely happened. I remember that day, crying all day long watching it on the news, and it’s a tragedy for anyone to say it didn’t happen, and so that I definitely want to tell you. I do not believe that it’s fake,” she added.
While Democrats argued that voting to strip Greene of her committee assignments would punish her, Greene said, “They don’t even realize they’re helping me. I’m pretty amazed at how dumb they are.”
“It doesn’t hurt me at all. I think it’s going to give me more time on my hands, I think, which is fantastic because then I can gain more support, I can help really get Republicans running in these primaries and elections in 2022,” she added.
