WASHINGTON — Rep. Greg Pence, R-Indiana, voted against removing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, from her committee assignments after allegations were raised of earlier racist remarks, embracing conspiracy theories and past endorsement of violence against leading Democratic officials.
In a 230-199 vote Thursday, the House removed Greene from the Education and Labor committee and the Budget committee, an unprecedented punishment that Democrats said she’d earned by spreading hateful and violent conspiracy theories, The Associated Press reported.
All but 11 Republicans voted against the Democratic move but none defended her lengthy history of what was described by congressmen as “outrageous” social media posts, according to wire reports.
Yet in a riveting moment, the freshman Republican from a deep-red corner of Georgia took to the House floor on her own behalf, according to wire reports. She offered a mixture of backpedaling and finger-pointing as she wore a dark mask emblazoned with the words “FREE SPEECH.”
The vote came after news organizations unearthed social media videos, posts and “likes” in which Greene falsely suggested the 9/11 terrorist attacks were staged, schools shootings in Connecticut and Florida were “false flag” operations designed to infringe on gun rights and endorsed the execution of Democrats, including a Facebook post she “liked” that called for “a bullet to the head” of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Greene has also falsely speculated that allies of former California Gov. Jerry Brown, including a bank controlled by a Jewish family, started a wildfire using “lasers or blue beams of light” shot down from space to clear a path for a high speed rail project Brown wanted.
In reality, a poorly maintained electrical grid started the wildfire.
“There are too many coincidences to ignore,” she wrote.
Pence did not respond to a request seeking comment on the reasons for his vote.
On Friday, Greene lashed out at “morons” in both parties who voted to kick her off her committees and showed no signs of repentance, according to wire reports.
“I woke up early this morning literally laughing thinking about what a bunch of morons the Democrats (+11) are for giving some one like me free time,” she tweeted.
At a news conference later outside the Capitol, Greene accused news organizations of “addicting our nation to hate,” according to wire reports. She deflected a question about her past online suggestion that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could be executed for treason, and warned that Republicans opposing her should remember that Trump — with whom she is closely allied — controls the GOP.
“The party is his,” she said. “It doesn’t belong to anybody else.”
A day earlier on the House floor, Greene tried to dissociate herself from her “words of the past,” according to wire reports. Contradicting past social media posts, she said she believes the 9/11 attacks and mass school shootings were real and no longer believes QAnon conspiracy theories, which include lies about Democratic-run pedophile rings.
