WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she won’t heed to calls for her to resign from Congress, and she is defiant even as Democrats insist she be expelled or stripped of committee assignments.
She also said the criticism has only strengthened her base and padded her campaign account to the tune of more than $1.6 million.
House Republicans, especially Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, are facing intense pressure to discipline Greene as reports of her problematic behavior continue to mount.
On Friday alone, a Democratic member of Congress moved her office after accusing Greene of initiating a verbal confrontation. At the same time, a video from Oct. 27 surfaced where Greene appeared to endorse violence against Democrats who oppose gun rights.
“The only way you get your freedoms back is it’s earned with the price of blood,” she said in the video, according to reporting by Mother Jones.
Greene was already facing criticism based on news reports from earlier in the week about her confronting a teenage victim of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, spreading conspiracy theories about wildfires in California and the Sandy Hook mass shooting, and “liking” posts on social media advocating the execution of members of Congress.
In her statement Friday afternoon, Greene described these news reports and her critics as spreading lies. And she insisted that her constituents and conservatives across the nation have her back.
“Every attack. Every lie. Every smear strengthens my base of support at home and across the country,” Greene said in a statement Friday afternoon. “Because people know the truth and are fed up with the lies.”
Greene’s spokesman did not respond to questions about the time period her reported fundraising haul covers.
The congresswoman remains loyal to former President Donald Trump and maintains that November’s election was stolen from him and that Joe Biden’s presidency is not legitimate. She condemned the violence that overtook the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 but has supported the “stop the steal” efforts that many Democrats believe radicalized Trump supporters and caused them to riot.
Before taking office, she spread QAnon conspiracy theories and made racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic comments. Although she walked back some of her most problematic statements, such as repeating baseless conspiracy theories about 9/11 and the Las Vegas mass shooting, she rarely apologies.
Friday was indicative of that defiance.
Calls for Greene’s censure increased after Missouri U.S. Rep. Cori Bush announced she had moved her office to avoid interactions with Greene. Bush, a Democrat, said she was berated by a maskless Greene and her staff on Jan. 13. Bush also said that Greene falsely accused her of leading the rally in St. Louis that passed by the home of a couple who brandished their guns in reaction.
“In the context of Taylor Greene’s repeated endorsements of executing Democratic politicians before taking office, Taylor Greene’s renewed, repeated antagonization of the movement for Black lives in the last month directed toward me personally is cause for serious concern,” Bush said in a statement. “All of this led to my decision to move my office away from Taylor Greene for the safety of my team.”
Greene later released a video that she said refuted Bush’s account of the confrontation.
In the video, Greene’s mask, emblazoned with the word “censored,” is underneath her chin as she rails against Democrats while walking in a tunnel connecting the U.S. Capitol to a House office building. Someone off camera yells at Greene, telling her to wear her mask properly.
Greene then begins to yell back at what she describes as a “Democrat colleague,” accusing that person of being hypocritical for allowing members who tested positive for COVID-19 to vote in a secluded booth in the House chambers. It is unclear whether the other voice in the video is Bush.
Another Democrat, U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California, said he is filing a resolution to expel Greene from Congress. That would require a two-thirds vote of the House and is unlikely to pass given Democrats’ thin majority.
U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, said she will join a colleague in introducing a resolution next week calling for Greene to be censured on the U.S. House floor and encouraging her to resign. That proposal would only need a majority vote.
In Georgia, state Rep. Matthew Wilson, D-Brookhaven, introduced a resolution Friday at the General Assembly that urged Greene to resign. Nearly 50 Democrats signed on as co-sponsors, Wilson said.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, during her weekly news conference Thursday, criticized McCarthy and other Republicans for not standing up to Greene. She said it was problematic that she had been appointed to the House Education and Labor Committee even after spreading falsehoods about school shootings and confronting David Hogg, one of the Parkland students who later became a gun control advocate.
“Assigning her to the Education Committee when she has mocked the killing of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, when she has mocked the killing of teenagers at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — what could they be thinking?” Pelosi said. “Or is thinking too generous a word for what they might be doing?”
McCarthy said earlier this week that he found some of Greene’s past behavior “deeply disturbing” and would have a conversation with her. Greene, in her statement Friday, said she won’t back down and Republican leaders should stand with her against the attacks.
“If Republicans cower to the mob and let the Democrats and the ‘fake news’ media take me out, they’re opening the door to come after every single Republican until there’s none left,” she wrote. “But what’s worse is Republicans will be opening the door to let the vicious cancel culture mob take out every one of you.”
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