House Republicans grapple with Greene and Cheney

WASHINGTON » House Democrats planned a showdown vote for today over stripping Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments over her endorsement of racist and conspiratorial views, as the chamber’s top Republican signaled he would not bow to bipartisan demands to punish her.

The defiance by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, RCalif., came Wednesday as the House GOP also grappled over what to do about Rep. Liz Cheney, their No. 3 leader, after she backed Donald Trump’s impeachment. The decisions over how to handle the two Republican lawmakers subjected the GOP to a politically agonizing test of the direction of the party as it moves beyond Donald Trump’s presidency.

Democrats increased the pressure by planning a House vote on removing Greene from her committees for her embrace of calls to violence against Democrats and bizarre fictions about faked school shootings.

But shortly after the Democratic-led House Rules Committee cleared the way for today’s vote, McCarthy released a statement saying Democrats were “choosing to raise the temperature” by attempting a “partisan power grab.”

He said he condemned Greene’s past endorsements of conspiracy theories — after weeks of saying little critical of her — and said the first-term Georgia congresswoman had recognized in a private conversation that she must meet “a higher standard” as a lawmaker.

“I hold her to her word, as well as her actions going forward,” McCarthy said.

Separately, House Republicans were meeting privately Wednesday about an effort by Trump loyalists to push Cheney out of her leadership post. That move was sparked after Cheney, a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a fixture of the party establishment, became one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Trump last month.

During a break in that closed-door session, McCarthy told reporters he’d defended Cheney inside.

“People can have differences of opinion. That’s what you can have a discussion about. Liz has a right to vote her conscience,” said McCarthy, who’d previously given no clear signal about whether he’d support his lieutenant.

At the earlier House Rules Committee meeting, Chair Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said lawmakers would send “an awful message” if they took no action on Greene. “If this is not the bottom, I don’t know what the hell is,” McGovern said.

But McCarthy, in his statement, tried to push blame onto Democrats, criticizing them for doing nothing about their own lawmakers, including one who he said he “spread anti-Semitic tropes.” Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., made comments critical of Israel in 2019 for which she apologized.

The closed-door GOP meeting was likely to discuss the political fates of Cheney and Greene, and touch as well on McCarthy’s performance. He is having to guide the House GOP through one of its most contentious periods, but his favored approach of avoiding ruffling feathers has been criticized by some Republicans who think he needs to be more decisive.

That meeting was also expected to become an emotional debate over whether the GOP should follow Trump’s norm-busting divisiveness or embrace the party’s more traditional, policy-oriented conservative values.

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