On February 4th, 2021, the US House of Representatives took the unprecedented move to vote to remove the posts of Marjorie Taylor Greene from the education and budget committees. This vote was passed 230-199. Eleven Republicans joined the majority Democrats to pass the motion.
The basis of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s removal from her posts comes from a deep concern about her promotion of baseless conspiracy theories, particularly those rooted in QAnon. In addition, Greene has publicly endorsed violence against Democrats to the point of calling for their execution.
So, who is Marjorie Taylor Greene? She is a far-right Republican congresswoman who was elected to represent the 14th Congressional District of Georgia in November 2020. She campaigned on being pro-gun, anti-abortion, and extremely pro-Trump.
The Republican Party says that this vote and removal of Greene sets a dangerous precedent for freedom of speech. However, Democrats state that their move was warranted when they discovered that Greene had publicly called for the execution of some of her colleagues:
“Greene’s appalling behavior both before her election and during her term has helped fuel domestic terrorism, endangered lives of her colleagues, and brought shame on the entire House of Representatives… Based on her actions and statements and her belligerent refusal to disavow them, she should not be permitted to participate in the important work of these two influential committees” –
REPRESENTATIVE DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATIVE FOR FLORIDA).
In several Facebook videos, Greene stated that all cases of treason should receive the death penalty. She then proposed that Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, and former president Barack Obama were all guilty of this offense.
However, Greene’s concerning views date back long before her 2020 House campaign. Throughout her social media presence, particularly in the past 3 years, Greene has made multiple Facebook videos discussing her views.
In 2017, she made a video stating that the Black Lives Matter movement was a radical Marxist group. She proposed that Black Americans are slaves to the Democrats.
In 2018 she made a video stating that the elections of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib (two Muslim US representatives) were actually part of an Islamic invasion of America. To add to this, Greene and her supporters actually walked through a congressional office building with the intention of making Omar and Tlaib re-swear their governmental oaths on the Christian Bible.
Greene has argued that these were her views before her campaign and they have since changed. However, many Democrats, and those who called for the removal of her post on the committee, say that many statements Greene made during her campaign prove otherwise.
A day before the election, Greene said in an interview that “the only way you get your freedoms back is it’s earned with the price of blood”. This was interpreted by many as Greene condoning the actions of white supremacist groups, particularly the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers.
Greene had the opportunity to explain her views during a closed meeting with the Republican Party the Wednesday before the vote. While sporting a mask bearing the words “Free Speech” and arguing that her old views no longer represented her, Greene received a standing ovation.
However, her speech wasn’t convincing enough for everyone else. Eleven of her fellow party members voted for her removal. Greene said that she was “laughing” at the decision. She argued that the 230 democrats and 11 Republicans “stripped her district of their voice”. She called the vote “tyrannically controlled”.
In a tweet from Friday, the 5th of February, Greene wrote: “I woke up early this morning literally laughing thinking about what a bunch of morons the Democrats (+11) are for giving someone like me free time”.
There is now concern about a tit-for-tat political situation between the Democrats and the Republicans. Greene threatened: “If Democrats remove me from my committees, I can assure them that the precedent they are setting will be used extensively against members on their side once we regain the majority after the 2022 elections”.
