McCarthy condemns Greene’s remarks but criticizes Democrats

WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday condemned Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s open embrace of conspiratorial theories and racist views but criticized a drive by Democrats to remove her from her committees, signaling he would not yield to a bipartisan outcry to punish her.

McCarthy, in a statement, also suggested he would reach no agreement with Democrats, who planned a House vote Thursday to remove her from her committees.

McCarthy, R-Calif., said Greene’s comments “caused deep wounds.” He said the first-term congresswoman from Georgia recognizes that she must now hold herself to a higher standard than when she was a private citizen and said he would hold her to that “going forward.”

But McCarthy also 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.

McCarthy’s statement came after Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democrat, said the chamber would vote Thursday on removing Greene from her committees. Taken together, the comments intensified the stakes over Greene’s online embrace of conspiracy theories and calls for violence against Democratic politicians.

Greene isn’t the only Republican House member under fire. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney is facing blowback for her decision last month to vote to impeach President Donald Trump, and some Republicans want her to lose her leadership position. Cheney and Greene have found themselves in the position of antagonizing opposing wings of a Republican Party struggling to define itself without Trump in the White House.

House Republicans, under bipartisan pressure to punish Greene, had been hoping to act on their own — such as removing her from one of her two committees — and avoid a difficult political vote. It would force them to go on record defending or punishing a social media savvy lawmaker who has the enthusiastic support of Trump.

But Hoyer’s statement said that after he spoke to McCarthy, “it is clear there is no alternative to holding a floor vote on the resolution to remove Rep. Greene from her committee assignments.“

Greene herself was showing little sign of backing down. “No matter what @GOPLeader does it would never be enough for the hate America Democrats,” she tweeted early Wednesday. She has previously spread unfounded QAnon pro-Trump conspiracy theories and calls for violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.