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House votes to remove GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees

The House voted 230-199, with 11 Republicans joining every Democrat who voted.
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WASHINGTON — The House voted Thursday to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., from the Budget Committee and the Education and Labor Committee after her social media posts revealed her spreading dangerous and racist conspiracy theories.

The House voted 230-199, with 11 Republicans joining every Democrat who voted.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had rebuked Republican leaders for refusing to take away Greene's assignments.

"I remain profoundly concerned about House Republicans' leadership acceptance of extreme conspiracy theorists," Pelosi said at her weekly news conference. "Particularly disturbing is their eagerness to reward a QAnon adherent, a 9/11 truther, a harasser of child survivors of school shootings."

"You would think that the Republican leadership in the Congress would have some sense of responsibility to this institution," she said, referring to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's decision not to punish Greene.

Some of the Republicans who voted with Democrats have criticized former President Donald Trump for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot. The list includes several lawmakers from South Florida and New York, two areas involved in deadly attacks Greene that has previously called into question.

The GOP defectors were Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Chris Jacobs of New York, Carlos A. Giménez of Florida, John Katko of New York, Young Kim of California, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Nicole Malliotakis of New York, Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida, Fred Upton of Michigan, Mario Díaz-Balart of Florida and Chris Smith of New Jersey.

The Democratic majority chose to pursue a proposal to remove Greene from her committees after House Republican leaders opted not to take action against Greene.

Referring to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Pelosi said at the news conference, "For some reason, they have chosen not to go down that path, even though Leader Hoyer gave Leader McCarthy sufficient notice that this was a path that we would follow."

Ahead of the vote, Greene spoke on the House floor for about 10 minutes. She did not specifically apologize for her comments but said that they did represent her or her values and that "absolutely what I regret" is believing things that weren't true after she discovered QAnon.

"This is what I ran for Congress on," Greene said. "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."

After the vote, Greene tweeted that she will hold a news conference Friday morning.

House Republicans decided during a four-hour closed-door meeting Wednesday night not to punish Greene after Democrats protested her appointment to the education panel.

Greene, a freshman, has come under fire for expressing support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, embracing calls for violence against top Democrats and suggesting that the Sandy Hook and Parkland school shootings were staged.

At Wednesday night's closed-door meeting, Greene tried to explain her previous positions and comments, according to sources in the room, and said that she does not believe in QAnon and that she understands that the school shootings happened, one of the sources said.

However, she has not publicly apologized.

McCarthy, R-Calif., questioned the Democrats' pursuit of the resolution Thursday, asking why certain Democrats whom Republicans have criticized are still members of committees.

"Never in the history of Congress have people been deciding where other parties are putting people on committees," he said after the meeting.