WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rebuked Republican leaders Thursday for refusing to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., of her committee assignments ahead of a House vote led by Democrats to do just that.
“I remain profoundly concerned about House Republicans’ leadership acceptance of extreme conspiracy theorists,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference. “Particularly disturbing is their eagerness to reward a QAnon adherent, a 9/11 truther, a harasser of child survivors of school shootings.”
“You would think that the Republican leadership in the Congress would have some sense of responsibility to this institution,” she said, referring to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s, R-Calif., decision not to punish Greene.
Feb. 4, 202101:14
The comments come as the House prepares to vote Thursday afternoon on removing Greene from the House Budget and Education and Labor committees, a proposal that the Democratic majority chose to pursue after House Republican leadership opted not to take action against their member.
“For some reason, they have chosen not to go down that path, even though Leader Hoyer gave Leader McCarthy sufficient notice that this was a path that we would follow,” Pelosi said at the news conference.
House Republicans decided during a four-hour closed-door meeting Wednesday night not to punish Greene after Democrats protested her appointment to the education panel.
Greene, a freshman, has come under fire for expressing support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, embracing calls violence against top Democrats and suggesting the Sandy Hook and Parkland school shootings were staged.
At Wednesday night’s closed-door meeting, Greene attempted to explain her previous positions and comments, according to sources in the room, and said she does not believe in QAnon and understands that the school shootings happened, one of the sources said.
The Georgia Republican, however, has not publicly apologized.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., questioned the Democrats’ pursuit of the resolution Thursday, asking why certain Democrats that Republicans have criticized are still members of committees.
“Never in the history of Congress have people been deciding where other parties are putting people on committees,” he said after the meeting.
Leigh Ann Caldwell and Alex Moe contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
