US House strips Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene from committee assignments
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Greene spoke on the House floor earlier on Thursday in an effort to defend herself and said that she regrets past remarks that have been the subject of controversy in recent weeks, however, she did not issue an apology.
The US House on Thursday ousted the newly elected lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene from two congressional committees. The House voted 230 to 199 to relieve Taylor Greene from education and labour, and budget committees.
Eleven Republican leaders supported the controversial leader's ouster. Representative Greene who is a vocal supporter of Trump's unsubstantiated claims of election fraud has repeatedly been condemned by Democrats and many Republicans for embracing numerous conspiracy theories in videos which include one conspiracy theory that the Parkland mass school shooting was a so-called false-flag operation.
Greene spoke on the House floor earlier on Thursday in an effort to defend herself and said that she regrets past remarks that have been the subject of controversy in recent weeks, however, she did not issue an apology.
"I never once said during my entire campaign, QAnon, I never once said any of the things that I am being accused of today during my campaign, I never said any of these things since I have been elected for Congress. These were words of the past. and these things do not represent me. They do not represent my district and they do not represent my values," Greene said.
A little while before the US House went to a vote as Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned Marjorie Taylor Greene for her embrace of far-right conspiracy theories, racist comments as well as her past endorsement of violence against Democrats.
"I remain profoundly concerned about House Republicans leadership acceptance of extreme conspiracy theorist, particularly disturbing is their eagerness to reward a QAnon adherent, a 9/11 truther, a harasser of child survivors of school shootings and a value to give them valued committee positions, including. who could imagine they would put such a person on the education committee?" Pelosi said.
The ouster was unprecedented, the step of stripping a House member of committee assignments is usually reserved for lawmakers who are facing indictments or criminal investigations or who have otherwise broken with their party in a particularly egregious way.