House Democrats plan to make their Republican colleagues go on the record about whether Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) should stay in the House as a member in good standing, with seats on the budget and education committees.
Greene is scrubbing her social media history of incendiary posts, but plenty has already been unearthed this week. The latest is a 2018 Facebook post in which Greene suggested, as New York's Jonathan Chait paraphrases, that deadly "California wildfires were intentionally set by a Jewish space laser." Greene has also said school mass shootings were faked, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — one of the several prominent Democrats whose killing Greene appears to have endorsed — used Greene's Sandy Hook hoax comments to slam House GOP leaders.
"Assigning her to the education committee, when she has mocked the killing of little children," Pelosi said Thursday. "What could they be thinking — or is thinking too generous a word for what they might be doing?" Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) said he will introduce a privileged resolution to expel Greene, ensuring it a floor vote as early as next week.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Expulsion would require two-thirds support in the House, making it highly unlikely that it will succeed," Politico says. "Still, it will force every single lawmaker, including members of GOP leadership, to go on the record when it comes to Greene." Meanwhile, her fate "is fueling tensions throughout the House" three weeks after the Jan. 6 assault, Politico notes. "Many Democrats say they are still rattled by the potential role of GOP members in that attack, including Greene," who "has been blamed even by some Republicans for helping to incite the insurrection."
"The enemy is within the House of Representatives," Pelosi said Thursday. "We have members of Congress who want to bring guns on the floor and have threatened violence against other members." Some House Democrats, The Washington Post reports, "have bought bulletproof vests and are seeking other protections."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) "has long struggled with how to address Greene, highlighting the current predicament for House GOP leaders, whose party attracts an increasingly virulent anti-establishment, conspiratorial base," the Post reports. He had, and blew, his chance last summer, Axios reports, when he and his leadership team "discussed — but then largely set aside — fears that" the "QAnon-supporting" Greene "would end up a flaming trainwreck for their party."
-
September 14 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include RFK Jr on the hook, the destruction of discourse, and more
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-warTalking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
A tour of Sri Lanka’s beautiful northThe Week Recommends ‘Less frenetic’ than the south, this region is full of beautiful wildlife, historical sites and resorts
-
SpaceX breaks Starship losing streak in 10th testspeed read The Starship rocket's test flight was largely successful, deploying eight dummy satellites during its hour in space
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's studySpeed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-offSpeed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves babyspeed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
