House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy meets with Marjorie Taylor Greene as Republicans call for Squad member Ilhan Omar to be removed from committees instead because of her 'anti-antisemitism'
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy met with far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as Republicans considered punishing her for her outlandish conspiracy theories and violent, racist views.
Aides to McCarthy and Greene offered no immediate comment after the two spent around 90 minutes together in his Capitol office.
Republicans have faced pressure from Democrats and members of their own party to strip Taylor Greene from her seats on the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Education and Labor.
Republicans are also seeking to have Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democratic from Minnesota, removed from her committee assignments for 'anti-Semtism,' Fox News reported.
The House GOP Steering Committee, which makes committee assignments for the party, was also summoned to meet on Tuesday. The Steering Committee can remove people from their posts, but no decision was announced.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, pictures, met with Marjorie Taylor Greene for nearly 90 minutes on Tuesday
Taylor Greene has floated conspiracy theories about 9/11 and has made racist and anti-Semitic statements
Republican lawmakers seek to introduce a proposal to strip progressive Ilhan Omar, center, from her committee seats
Officials told CNN that the Steering Committee, which has not met with Greene, will meet again on Wednesday to try and reach decision.
Democrats have threatened to submit a resolution with the House Rules Committee and may force a vote to remove Greene on Wednesday if Republicans fail to act.
Sen. John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota and a member of GOP leadership, said on Tuesday that the party's identity crisis is a 'big distraction for them right now.'
'Do they want to be the party of limited government and fiscal responsibility, free markets, peace through strength and pro-life or do they want to be the party of conspiracy theories and QAnon,' he said.
Senate Republicans including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a former presidential candidate, have issued firm criticism of Taylor Greene.
Taylor Greene, pictured, has been firmly rebuked by members of her own party including Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney
Ilhan Omar, right, has faced criticism for 'anti-Semitism' for her comments about Israel
'Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country,' McConnell said in a statement.
Romney said: 'I think our party has to make it very clear that she does not represent us in any way.'
House Republicans, however, are instead pushed for action against progressive 'Squad' member Ilhan Omar.
A proposed GOP-backed amendment obtained by Fox News seeks to remove Omar from House Budget Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee assignments.
Reps. Brian Babin, Jeff Duncan, Jody Hice, Andy Biggs, and Ronny Jackson have reportedly sponsored the resolution 'in light of conduct she has exhibited,' Fox News reported.
The Republicans allege that Omar has made anti-Semitic comments in the past that mark a grounds for dismissal.
Omar, a longtime critic of Israel, received bipartisan criticism in 2019 when she suggested that pro-Israel politicians were being paid by the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby.
'It's all about the Benjamins baby,' Omar had previously tweeted, referencing McCarthy's pledge to take 'action' against her for her Israel criticism.
Republican representative Guy Reschenthaler, from Pennsylvania, sought to remove fellow 'Squad' member Rashida Tlaib from her committee assignments last year for her own alleged 'anti-Semitic' comments.
Greene said Parkland shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg was trained 'like a dog,' in a clip that surfaced Tuesday as Democrats are poised to remove her from committee assignments over controversial statements.
Taylor Greene, however, has made far reaching conspiracy theory claims including that school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida, could be hoaxes.
The families of children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown previously have sued conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for making similar claims.
In a clip that surfaced on Tuesday, Taylor Greene said Parkland shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg was trained 'like a dog.'
'So he is very trained, he's like a dog, he's completely trained,' Greene said in an 2019 interview with Georgia Gun Owners executive director Patrick Parsons, who's now her chief of staff.
The video, which remains on Facebook, was first unearthed by NBC News.
An unearthed video from 2019 shows Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (left) speaking to Georgia Gun Owners head Patrick Parsons (right), who's now her chief of staff, about her encounter with gun control activist David Hogg. In the new clip she says he's 'trained like a dog'
On Wednesday, a video went viral that showed now Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (back left and right) following Parkland survivor and gun control activist David Hogg (left) around Capitol Hill's campus, chiding him for his support of gun control measures
In it, Greene is speaking about following Hogg around on Capitol Hill, a clip that went viral last week in the aftermath of CNN breaking a story about how the Georgia Republican had indicated support for executing Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in Facebook posts.
The original video shows Greene following Hogg on Capitol Hill, at one point calling him a 'coward,' and asking the school shooting victim if he realized his classmates wouldn't been killed if the school's guard had been armed.
'Good guys with guns hurt bad guys with guns, they'll kill them, and it will reduce the number of deaths,' she noted.
Describing the encounter to Parsons, Greene said Hogg 'does not talk.'
'He only talks when he's scripted,' she said.
Greene said Hogg was being followed around Capitol Hill with a 'gaggle of girls' and also female 'handlers' in their 20s and 30s.
'Here they are, they are so naive and they are being so brainwashed into fighting to take away something that protects them as women,' she said of Hogg's female companions. 'I was heartbroken, literally heartbroken. I'm so thankful for my Second Amendment rights.'
'They're fighting to get rid of the right to protect themselves from getting raped,' Greene continued in the 2019 interview.
'I'm looking at this idiot, David Hogg, leading these girls who are clueless, absolutely clueless, into giving up the greatest thing that protects them,' the future congresswoman added.
While Greene has expressed beliefs in a number of conspiracy theories, including QAnon, that a plane didn't hit the Pentagon on 9/11 and that California's Camp Fire was caused by space lasers, which she connected to the Rothschilds in an anti-Semitic dog whistle, Pelosi's biggest complaint was that the congresswoman expressed doubt that Parkland and Sandy Hook actually happened.
Last week, Pelosi went on a tirade because Greene had been placed by Republican leadership on the House's Education committee after saying the massacres had been 'staged.'
'What could they be thinking? Or is thinking too generous a word for what they might be doing. It's absolutely appalling and I think that the focus has to be on the Republican leadership of this House of Representatives for the disregard they have for the death of those children,' Pelosi said Thursday.
Pelosi said top Republicans were willing to 'overlook' Greene's comments 'when she has mocked the killing of little children,' pointing specifically to the massacres at Sandy Hook Elementary and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the latter of which Hogg attended.
Since video of Hogg and Greene's encounter went viral, the now 20-year-old gun control activist has also called for Greene to be stripped of her committee assignments.
Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz introduced a resolution that would remove Greene from her committees and a vote is expected Wednesday.
Only a majority, which Democrats have, would need to vote yea.
That's an easier sell than a separate effort from Rep. Jimmy Gomez to have Greene expelled from Congress.
As of Tuesday night, Gomez said he had 68 co-sponsors.
Still, that legislation would need two-thirds of the House for passage.
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