Opinion
If Marjorie Taylor Greene Isn’t Beyond the Pale,
Who Is?
There’s still time for Republican leaders to reject Q.
By The
Editorial Board
The
editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by
expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate
from the newsroom.
Jan. 31,
2021
How far is
too far? This is the question Republican leaders are being forced to grapple
with as the public outcry grows over one of their newest House members,
Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The Georgia
freshman is best known for endorsing QAnon, the right-wing movement convinced
of the fiction that Donald Trump is a messiah sent to defeat a cabal of
Satan-worshiping, child-abusing, deep-state villains. But this is just one of
the bizarre lies she has peddled. Her greatest hits include promoting the
conspiracy theory that blames the 2018 Camp Fire wildfire in California on a
space laser controlled by a prominent Jewish banking family, suggesting the
Obama administration used its MS-13 “henchmen” to murder a Democratic National
Committee staff member and floating the idea that the Clintons had John F.
Kennedy Jr. killed. She has dabbled in 9/11 Trutherism and contended that
various school shootings were false-flag operations. She also traffics in
racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim talk.
Ms. Greene
does not draw the line at promoting bigotry and disinformation. Videos and
social media posts from before she ran for Congress show her endorsing violence
against those she sees as enemy combatants in an ongoing civil war. She has
expressed support of social media calls to execute high-profile Democrats,
including the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and F.B.I. agents. When asked about
such activities, Ms. Greene has dodged, asserting that her pages have been run
by “teams” of people over the years, some promoting views with which she does
not agree. Many of the posts in question have since been scrubbed.
Ms.
Greene’s behavior since her election has been troubling as well. She has
peddled false claims that the presidential election was stolen and rife with
fraud. She was among the 139 House Republicans who voted to overturn the
results of the Electoral College on Jan. 6, even after a pro-Trump mob sacked
the Capitol. On Jan. 17, Twitter briefly suspended her account for repeatedly
violating its “civic integrity policy.”
The silence
from Republican leaders has been deafening. That can’t continue if the party
has any hope of reclaiming conservatism from nihilistic rot — something every
American should be rooting for to maintain a healthy two-party system. Ms.
Greene is now a member of the House of Representatives, with a prominent
platform and real power to have impact on people’s lives. She has a
responsibility to act — and speak — in the best interests of the American
public and of the Constitution she has sworn to serve and defend. Peddling
grotesque lies, cheering talk of political violence (which she claims to
oppose) and fomenting sedition run counter to her oath of office.
With each
new revelation, the calls to discipline Ms. Greene grow louder. Representative
Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat from California, plans to introduce a resolution
calling for her expulsion from Congress, which had at least 50 members signed
on as of Friday. This approach is unlikely to succeed. While the Constitution
gives both chambers of Congress wide latitude to punish members, expulsion,
which requires a two-thirds majority to pass, has been used rarely over the
centuries. Lawmakers prefer to leave it to voters to hand down such a sentence.
Representatives
Nikema Williams of Georgia and Sara Jacobs of California plan to introduce a
resolution to censure Ms. Greene. This penalty is imposed more frequently and
requires only a simple majority to pass. It is meant to serve as a badge of
shame. Of course, Ms. Greene, who revels in shamelessness, might well wear it
as a badge of honor — evidence that a corrupt, elitist political establishment
was out to get her.
Representative
Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida is among those calling for a more
appropriate punishment: stripping Ms. Greene of her committee assignments.
Critics are particularly incensed by Ms. Greene’s being placed on the education
committee, in light of her deranged theories on school shootings.
Republicans
have recent experience in this area. In 2019, the House minority leader, Kevin
McCarthy, stripped Steve King of his committee posts for defending white
nationalism in an interview with The Times. The Iowa lawmaker had a long
history of racist remarks, for which voters had largely given him a pass. But
losing his committee assignments did not simply mark Mr. King, it drained his
influence and his ability to serve constituents. Mr. King lost his primary race
last year, ending his nine terms in office.
Mr.
McCarthy needs to take substantive action of this kind with Ms. Greene. Voters
may have just chosen Ms. Greene to represent them, but her Republican
colleagues have the leeway to declare that she does not represent them. When
Ms. Greene’s statements about assassinating Ms. Pelosi surfaced, Mr. McCarthy’s
office called them “deeply disturbing” and said he would have a talk with her
about them this week. Mr. McCarthy has an opportunity to make clear that there
are standards of decency and duty that transcend partisanship. Others are
watching, within his conference and beyond.
Ms. Greene
has thus far met criticism with defiance. “I will never back down. I will never
give up,” she said in a statement on Friday, which included an ominous warning
to her party. “If Republicans cower to the mob, and let the Democrats and the
Fake News media take me out, they’re opening the door to come after every
single Republican until there’s none left.”
Ms. Greene
is correct that the Republican Party is facing a serious threat from an
unhinged mob. She should know; she’s one of its leaders.
