WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Rebuked Republican leaders Thursday for refusing to accept Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., To get rid of her committee assignments ahead of a Democratic-led House vote to do just that.
“I remain deeply concerned about the House Republicans leadership’s acceptance of extreme conspiracy theorists,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference. school shootings. “
“You would think that the Republican leadership in Congress would have some sense of responsibility to this institution,” she said, referring to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Not to punish Greene.
The comments come as the House prepares to vote Thursday afternoon to remove Greene from the House Budget and Education and Labor committees, a proposal the Democratic majority decided to pursue after House Republican leaders chose not to take action against their member.
“For some reason they chose not to go down that road, even though Leader Hoyer had adequately told Leader McCarthy that this was one we would follow,” Pelosi said at the press conference.
Before the vote, Greene spoke in the House of Representatives for about 10 minutes. She did not specifically apologize for her controversial comments, but said that they were words from the past and that “I absolutely regret” believing things that were not true after discovering QAnon.
“This is what I did for Congress,” Greene said. “I never said once during my entire campaign, QAnon. I never said any of the things I am accused of today during my campaign. I never said any of these things since I was elected to Congress. the past. And these things don’t represent me. They don’t represent my district. And they don’t represent my values. “
House Republicans decided Wednesday night during a four-hour private meeting not to punish Greene after Democrats protested her nomination to the education panel.
Greene, a freshman, has come under fire for expressing support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, embracing calls for violence against Democrats, and suggesting that the Sandy Hook and Parkland shootings took place in schools.
At Wednesday night’s private meeting, Greene tried to explain her previous views and comments, according to sources in the room, saying she does not believe in QAnon and understands that the school shootings took place, one of the sources said.
However, the Georgian Republican has not publicly apologized.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., On Thursday questioned the Democrats’ pursuit of the resolution, asking why certain Democrats who have criticized Republicans are still on committees.
“Never in the history of Congress have people decided where other parties put people on committees,” he said after the meeting.
Leigh Ann Caldwell contributed.