The Mycenaean

The United States House of Representatives voted on the night of February 4 to strip freshman Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) from the two committee’s that she’s assigned to. The vote was 230-199, with eleven Republicans joining the entire Democratic caucus, barring two absent members. The vote removed Rep. Greene from the Education and Labor Committee as well as the Budget Committee. This comes after numerous past comments, tweets, and ads from Rep. Greene came to light, many of which Democrats say were threatening and bigoted.

The Blatant Violence

The list of examples of these comments goes on. Democrats hammered Greene for inciting political violence. One big example they used were Facebook posts from 2018. In one instance, Greene liked a comment that said the quickest way to remove Nancy Pelosi from the Speakership would be “a bullet to the head”. 

While running for Congress in 2020, Greene put out a media ad on Facebook that also came under heavy scrutiny. In it, Greene is holding an AR-15 assault rifle that’s pointed towards pictures of Representatives Illhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). The photo’s caption is “Squad’s Worst Nightmare.” 

The Delusional Theories

Greene also came under fire for her past support of conspiracy theories involving 9/11, as well as multiple school shootings. In 2018 when interviewed at a conservative rally, Greene said “We had witnessed 9/11, the terrorist attack in New York and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania and the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon,” she said at the time. “It’s odd there’s never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon, but anyways, I won’t — I’m not going to dive into the 9/11 conspiracy.” 

The Congresswoman has also made past comments questioning the validity of the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting, where 26 people died including 20 children. Greene also said that the Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting, where 17 people died including 14 teenagers, was faked. Greene has called them “false flag” operations, an act that’s committed with the intent of redirecting blame onto something else. In this case Greene said these shootings were hoaxes meant for the purpose of taking guns away.

The Xenophobia and Bigotry

Greene was also condemned for her many past anti-semitic, islamaphobic, and racist remarks. Before running for congress, Greene put out several videos explaining her views on the aforementioned subjects. In one video Greene starts off by saying that there’s an Islamic invasion into the government after several Muslims got elected into office in the 2018 midterms. Later in that video she says that Muslims should stay in their own countries, and leave America alone. 

In a seperate video, Greene says that gangs, dealing drugs, and lack of education are the reason that young Black and Hispanic men struggle at reaching success, and that it’s not a white person thing. She goes on to deny that systematic racism is an issue when it comes to working and says the blame lies entirely on a person’s own choices. 

The Congresswoman has also made a number of alarming comments when it comes to the Jewish people. She’s said that George Soros, a wealthy Democratic donor, turned his own people over to the Nazi’s during the Holocaust. Greene has voiced support in the past for numerous Q-Anon conspiracies, most of which include anti-semitic undertones. One prominent conspiracy says that Jews rule the world, and use blood libel to stay in power. Blood libel is an ancient accusation that says Jewish people use the blood of Christian children for rituals. In a past Facebook post, Greene accused another wealthy Jewish family of using a space laser to spark the 2018 wildfires in California. 

An Alarming Change of Heart

When the racist and anti-semitic comments came to light in June of 2020, GOP leadership was quick to condemn Greene who at the time was campaigning for her seat. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the Republican leader in the House called the comments appalling. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the Republican Whip in the House, endorsed Greene’s then primary challenger and called the comments disgusting. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the Republican Conference Chairwoman, called the comments bigoted, but that was then. 

Now that Greene is a Congresswoman, it seems as though they’ve had a change of heart, all voting to keep Greene on her committees. McCarthy went so far as to stand on the House floor and say that the majority was abusing their power. Several Republicans went so far to call it a power grab by Democrats. 

This defense of Congresswoman Greene by all but five percent of her party begs the question: where does today’s Republican party stand? Do they stand with the majority of Americans who don’t believe in bigotry and conspiracies, or do they stand with a woman who exudes these xenophobic values? House Republicans put their decision on the record Thursday night, they stand with the latter.