McConnell says ‘loony lies’ spread by Marjorie
Taylor Greene are a ‘cancer’ on G.O.P.
Feb. 1,
2021, 8:47 p.m. ET4 hours ago
4 hours ago
By Catie
Edmondson
Senator
Mitch McConnell said on Monday that the “loony lies and conspiracy theories”
embraced by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene amounted to a “cancer” on the
Republican Party, issuing what in effect was a scathing rebuke to the freshman
House Republican from Georgia.
In a
statement reported by The Hill, Mr. McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader,
never named Ms. Greene, but he referred to several of the outlandish and false
conspiracy theories she has espoused and warned that such statements were
damaging the party.
“Loony lies
and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country,”
Mr. McConnell said. “Somebody who’s suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon
on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the
Clintons crashed JFK Jr.’s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing
to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on
substance that can strengthen our party.”
House
Republican leaders in the past week have been mostly silent as pressure mounted
to respond to the cascade of Ms. Greene’s problematic social media posts and
videos that have surfaced in the past week, in which she endorsed a seemingly
endless array of conspiracy theories and violent behavior, including executing
Democratic leaders. At the same time, they are weighing calls within their
ranks by loyalists of former President Donald J. Trump to strip Representative
Liz Cheney, the No. 3 Republican, of her leadership post as punishment for her
vote to impeach Mr. Trump.
In a
separate statement reported by CNN, Mr. McConnell weighed in on behalf of Ms.
Cheney, who represents Wyoming’s sole congressional district, calling her “a
leader with deep convictions and the courage to act on them.”
Mr.
McConnell, who is said to believe that Mr. Trump committed impeachable
offenses, has made it clear he is open to voting to convict the former president
for “incitement of insurrection,” although he voted with the vast majority of
Republicans last week to dismiss the case as unconstitutional.
The twin
statements by Mr. McConnell amounted to a rare step by the most powerful
Republican in Washington to insert himself into an increasingly ugly intraparty
feud.
They have
intensified pressure on Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the
minority leader, who is to meet with Ms. Greene later this week amid calls from
outside Republican groups and some members of his own party to revoke the
Georgia freshman’s committee assignments. This leaves Mr. McCarthy on an
uncomfortable middle ground after Ms. Greene over the weekend said she spoke
with Mr. Trump and received his support, essentially framing any action
Republican leaders might take against her as defying him by proxy.
Ms. Greene
offered her own retort in response to Mr. McConnell on Twitter, saying “the
real cancer” on the party was “weak Republicans who only know how to lose
gracefully.”
House Democrats on Monday indicated that they were prepared to unilaterally remove Ms. Greene from her committees if Mr. McCarthy does not act, advancing a measure to strip her of assignments that will be considered by the House Rules Committee on Wednesda
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