House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Thursday took aim at Republican leadership hours before the full House is expected to vote to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) of her committee assignments in the wake of her inflammatory and conspiracy-ridden remarks that recently resurfaced.
During a briefing on Thursday, Pelosi rebuked House Republican leadership a day after Greene reportedly received a standing ovation from her colleagues after expressing some remorse for embracing QAnon-conspiracy theories during a closed-door House GOP conference meeting.
Despite showing some regret to colleagues behind closed doors, Greene has yet to issue a public apology for her incendiary remarks. Greene has repeatedly vowed publicly on Twitter that she “won’t back down” amid mounting calls for her expulsion from Congress and the revocation of her committee assignments.
Pelosi said on Thursday that she remains “profoundly concerned” about House Republican leadership’s “acceptance of extreme conspiracy theorists” as she referred to the controversy centered around Greene.
“Their eagerness to reward a 9/11 truther, a harasser of school shootings and to give them valued committee positions, including who could imagine they would put such a person on the Education Committee,” Pelosi said.
Referring to the House’s vote later Thursday expected to strip Greene of her committee assignments, Pelosi said that having to vote to take action against Greene is “unfortunate.” The House speaker implied that Republican leadership should have taken it upon themselves to discipline Greene.
“You would think that the Republican leadership in the Congress would have some sense of responsibility to this institution,” Pelosi said, before referring to former Rep. Steve King (R-IA) getting booted from his committee assignments in 2019 after wondering aloud why white supremacy is considered offensive in a New York Times interview.
“For some reason, they have chosen not to go down that path, even though (House Majority Leader Steny) Hoyer (D-MD) gave (House Minority Leader Kevin) McCarthy (R-CA) sufficient notice this is a path we would follow,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi’s latest rebuke of House Republicans comes a day after McCarthy, who finally met with Greene after days of inaction, released a statement Wednesday afternoon indicating that he has no plans to take disciplinary action against Greene. McCarthy attacked Democrats instead for the uproar over Greene’s recently resurfaced remarks.
Pelosi rebuked McCarthy shortly after the House minority leader failed to take action in a scathing statement later Wednesday that referred to him as “McCarthy (Q-CA),” nodding to Greene’s history of espousing dangerous QAnon conspiracy theories, which includes musing about the execution of Democrats.
“After several conversations and literally running away from reporters, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Q-CA) made clear that he is refusing to take action against conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Pelosi said in the statement Wednesday.“As a result, the House will continue with a vote to strip Greene of her seat on the esteemed House Committee on Education & Labor and House Committee on Budget.”
Pelosi argued that McCarthy’s “failure to lead his party effectively hands the keys over to Greene – an anti-Semite, QAnon adherent and 9/11 Truther.”
Pelosi rebuked McCarthy’s “cowardly refusal to deal with Greene” by citing condemnation from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), the Republican Jewish Coalition and several prominent Republicans demanding disciplinary action against Greene.
Watch Pelosi’s remarks below:
