Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) expressed contrition in private for some of her past incendiary remarks as well as for embracing QAnon conspiracy theories — and received a standing ovation from a number of her colleagues, according to reports.
The comments during a closed-door House GOP conference meeting come as Greene has so far refused to apologize publicly.
Greene was applauded by colleagues for expressing regret for some but not all of her most outrageous comments made on social media — including questioning the 9/11 attacks and blaming a space ray directed by a Jewish cabal for a deadly wildfire.
Yet the Georgia Republican, while showing some regret to colleagues behind closed doors, has repeatedly vowed publicly on Twitter that she would never back down after reports last week revealed she had endorsed extremist and violent views such as executing Democratic leaders and FBI agents as well as suggesting that some school shootings were “false flag” operations.
Republicans in the room on Wednesday night told The Washington Post that the right-wing extremist lawmaker also apologized for putting her colleagues in a difficult position as Democrats prepare for a vote to remove the Georgia congresswoman from committees.
According to The Hill, Greene told her colleagues that she made a mistake by being curious about “Q” and learned a lesson about what to put on social media.
Greene claimed ignorance about comments related to Jewish space lasers and appeared to stand by comments that past school shootings were staged, citing personal experience with a school shooting, sources told The Hill.
The private comments follow tweets over the weekend that offered little remorse, let alone an apology, for endorsing violence or suggesting that school shootings were false flag events.
“I won’t back down. I’ll never apologize. And I’ll always keep fighting for the people,” the Georgia lawmaker had tweeted Saturday.
Greene later refused to address past comments, vaguely telling right-wing radio host and former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka in an interview published Tuesday that she had “said things I shouldn’t say at some time or another, but I don’t think I have anything to apologize for.”
A day later, she sought to victimize herself — accusing Republican colleagues of not standing up for her.
“It’s me this week, and it’ll be someone else next week, and our leaders are too weak to stand up against it. That is why Republican voters will not vote for them anymore,” she told right-wing podcast host Dinesh D’Souza in an interview published Wednesday.
The House will vote Thursday on removing Greene from the Budget and Education committees. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has so far declined to discipline Greene after meeting with her privately on Tuesday.
Shortly before her remarks, McCarthy took to the Georgia lawmaker’s defense, declaring he does not want to remove her from committee assignments.
“Past comments from and endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene on school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference,” McCarthy said in a statement Wednesday.
But while he distanced the party from Greene’s comments he also employed tactics of diversion — distracting from the party’s QAnon problem by instead accusing Democrats of using Greene to pursue a “partisan power grab” to control the GOP’s internal decision-making.
