Arizona Rep. Biggs defends Greene ahead of vote.
Embattled Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has found a defender in Rep. Andy Biggs, who has faced heavy criticism himself for his role in trying to undermine public confidence in the 2020 presidential election results.
Biggs, R-Ariz., who leads the conservative House Freedom Caucus, sought to shield Greene, R-Ga., from losing her House committee assignments, which could happen Thursday.
In a written statement, Biggs contended that Democrats who have made controversial statements in the past were not penalized in the same way.
Biggs accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DCalif., and other Democrats for undermining Donald Trump’s presidency, efforts Biggs said were aided by the mainstream media.
“Many members of the radical left in Congress have advocated for violence, anti-Semitism, anti-law enforcement, and other sentiments that have violated rules of decorum and principles of American decency,” Biggs said.
“The left, and their allies in the mainstream media, have ignored and buried these egregious statements, while projecting their sins upon Republicans. … All Members of Congress have a duty to hold ourselves to a higher standard when it come(s) to our language and actions. While Congress does have specific rules governing some of our actions and rhetoric, we all understand that our constituents are the final arbiters of our performances.”
Biggs has come under scrutiny in connection with run up to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot.
Ali Alexander, who helped organize the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” campaign, in a video mentioned Biggs by name as one of three U.S. lawmakers who he said helped come up with the plan to put “maximum pressure” on Congress as it was certifying the 2020 Electoral College votes on Jan. 6. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., was another named by Alexander. Even after the Capitol rampage, Biggs voted to object to the certification of the results from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Biggs has called the allegations false and has denied Alexander’s claim that he participated in any strategizing.
Despite the scrutiny, Biggs last month was named to the powerful House Oversight and Reform Committee.
House members are set to vote Thursday on taking action against Greene, who objected to the 2020 election results and who has used social media to spread debunked QAnon conspiracy theories.
The House Democrats seeking to sideline Taylor Green have seized on the revelations from a CNN examination of Greene’s social-media history. Before she was elected to Congress, CNN found, she seemed to indicate support for violence against Democrats. Greene also has drawn outrage for baselessly suggesting deadly mass shootings were staged “false flag” events.
Biggs said Democrats’ efforts to nix Greene’s committee assignments for opinions she shared before her election to the House of Representatives was “unprecedented and unconstitutional” and warned that Republicans could “reciprocate” when Republicans win control of the chamber.
The debate over Greene’s fitness to serve in Congress has emerged as a proxy battle of sorts for the future of the Republican Party in a post-Trump era.
Some Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have rebuked her.
Other prominent Arizona Republicans also have expressed condemnation of Greene’s brand of politics.
During an appearance Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey disavowed Greene’s “calls to violence or conspiracy.” Ducey, chair of the Republican Governors Association, said her actions, if portrayed accurately, are “absolutely unacceptable.”
The governor said he had confidence that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., “will deal with it.”
Former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., denounced Greene after she claimed on Twitter that Democrats and the media were more outraged over her than the gunman who attacked a Republican baseball practice in 2017.
Flake was on the field when suspect James Hodgkinson injured two U.S. Capitol police officers, a congressional aide, and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La. Hodgkinson was shot and killed at the scene.
“I don’t remember anyone suggesting that it was a false flag event. But that’s what you said about the Parkland shooting,” Flake wrote Monday on Twitter in response to her post. “I hope you will apologize to the parents who lost children there.”
He later told The Arizona Republic that he was repulsed by her words: “I just thought it was repulsive, reprehensible, to particularly if you’re a parent who lost a child to hear members of Congress saying that somehow that was a staged event,” Flake said.
But Kelli Ward, the pro-Trump chair of the Arizona Republican Party, seemed to indicate support of Greene on Twitter by retweeting one of her posts that read, “The real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully. This is why we are losing our country.”