WASHINGTON -- A divided House tossed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene off both her committees Thursday, an unprecedented punishment that Democrats said she'd earned by spreading hateful and violent conspiracy theories.
Nearly all Republicans voted against the Democratic move.
The freshman Republican from Georgia took to the House floor on her own behalf. She offered a mixture of backpedaling and finger-pointing as she wore a dark mask emblazoned with the words "FREE SPEECH."
The chamber's near party-line 230-199 vote was the latest instance of conspiracy theories becoming pitched political battlefields. Former President Donald Trump faces Senate trial next week in his House impeachment charging him with inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
Thursday's fight also underscored the uproar and political complexities that Greene has prompted since becoming a House candidate last year.
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Eleven Republicans joined 219 Democrats in backing Greene's ejection from her committees, while 199 GOP lawmakers, including all four members of Arkansas' delegation, voted no.
Addressing her colleagues, Greene tried to dissociate herself from her "words of the past." Contradicting past social media posts, she said she believes the 9/11 attacks and mass school shootings were real and no longer believes QAnon conspiracy theories, which include lies about Democratic-run pedophile rings.
News organizations "can take teeny, tiny pieces of words that I've said, that you have said, any of us, and can portray us as someone that we're not," she said. She added that "we're in a real big problem" if the House punished her but tolerated "members that condone riots that have hurt American people" -- a clear reference to last summer's social justice protests that in some instances became violent.
"When I started finding misinformation, lies, things that were not true in these QAnon posts, I stopped believing it," she said, adding that her revelation came in 2018. "Any source of information that is a mix of truth and a mix of lies is dangerous."
She warned that lawmakers were creating a "big problem" if they chose to "crucify" her for "words that I said, and that I regret, a few years ago."
Her contention that she broke away from QAnon in 2018 also does not square with a series of posts she made in 2019 and other social media activity from that time, including liking a Facebook comment that endorsed shooting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the head and suggesting in the same year that Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then a Supreme Court justice, had been replaced with a body double.
Greene was on the education and labor, and budget, committees. Democrats were especially concerned about her assignment to the education panel, considering the past doubt she cast on school shootings in Florida and Connecticut.
The political imperative for Democrats was clear: Greene's support for violence and fictions were dangerous and merited punishment. Democrats and researchers said there was no apparent precedent for the full House removing a lawmaker from a committee, a step usually taken by their party leaders.
TRUMP ALLY
Though Trump left the White House in January, his followers are numerous among the party's voters, and he and Greene are allies. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., hopes GOP victories in the 2022 elections will make him speaker. Republicans could undermine that scenario by alienating Trump's and Greene's supporters, and McCarthy took no action to punish her.
"If any of our members threatened the safety of other members, we'd be the first ones to take them off a committee," Pelosi told reporters. She said she was "profoundly concerned" about GOP leaders' acceptance of an "extreme conspiracy theorist."
"The party of Lincoln is becoming the party of violent conspiracy theories, and apparently the leaders of the Republican Party in the House today are not going to do a damned thing about it," said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass.
McCarthy said Greene's past opinions "do not represent the views of my party." But without naming the offenders, he said Pelosi hadn't stripped committee memberships from Democrats who became embroiled in controversy. Among those he implicated was Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who made anti-Israel insults for which she later apologized.
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"If that's the new standard," he said of Democrats' move against Greene, "we have a long list."
Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., said he strongly condemns Greene's previous comments.
"Let me be very clear--I denounce in the strongest of terms the litany of remarks, likes, postings, and retweets of comments made by Rep. Greene," he said in a statement.
However, he disagreed with the House action.
"The House is taking a dangerous course by involving itself in a controversy best settled by North Georgia voters. To remove a member for rhetoric prior to becoming an elected member opens the floodgates for future actions similarly situated. Congress should not go there," his statement said.
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Democrats were setting a precedent by punishing lawmakers for statements made before they were even candidates for Congress. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, warned, "You engage in wrong-speak, you're in the Thunder Dome," a term for an enclosed wrestling arena.
Committee assignments are crucial for lawmakers for shaping legislation affecting their districts, creating a national reputation and raising campaign contributions. Even social media stars like Greene could find it harder to define themselves without the spotlights that committees provide.
In the Senate, fringe GOP candidates have lost winnable races in recent years and leaders worry a continued linkage with Trump and conspiracies will inflict more damage.
That chamber's minority leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., this week called Greene's words a "cancer" on the GOP and country. On Thursday, No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Thune of South Dakota amplified that thinking.
Thune said House Republicans needed to issue a "really strong" rebuke of Greene's conspiratorial formulations. Republicans must "get away from members dabbling in conspiracy theories," Thune said. "I don't think that's a productive course of action or one that's going to lead to much prosperity politically in the future."
The fight came a day after Republicans voted to keep Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in their leadership. Pro-Trump conservatives tried removing her because she supported Trump's impeachment.
Despite denouncing QAnon months ago, McCarthy now says the extremist ideology is foreign to him.
"I think it would be helpful if you could hear exactly what she told all of us -- denouncing Q-on, I don't know if I say it right, I don't even know what it is," he said Wednesday.
McCarthy's comment set off immediate backlash, with critics pointing out that the minority leader has addressed QAnon before in TV interviews and at news conferences.
On CNN, Chris Cuomo noted that QAnon played a major role in the attempted insurrection in the Capitol last month.
"You should just remind him next time you see him: Remember all those signs that the people were holding up as they savagely attacked our Capitol? Remember it said QAnon? That's QAnon," said Cuomo Wednesday night after showing a clip of McCarthy's comments
A spokeswoman for McCarthy did not immediately respond to a message early Thursday.
McCarthy has referred to QAnon in past interviews. In an Aug. 20 interview with Fox News's Shannon Bream, McCarthy condemned the extremist ideology.
"Let me be very clear, there is no place for QAnon in the Republican Party. I do not support it," he said.
During a news conference in November, a reporter asked McCarthy if he had concerns about new members like Greene and Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who have supported QAnon, potentially creating controversy for the House GOP. The House minority leader responded that both representatives "denounced Q-on," mispronouncing QAnon.
The House resolution punishing Greene was just over a page. It said House rules require lawmakers' behavior to "reflect credibly" on the chamber and said Greene should be removed "in light of conduct she has exhibited."
Information for this article was contributed by Alan Fram and Brian Slodysko of The Associated Press; by Catie Edmondson, Nicholas Fandos and Thomas Kaplan of The New York Times; and by Jaclyn Peiser of The Washington Post.
