WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is intensifying the pressure on a controversial Republican freshman.
During her weekly press conference, the California Democrat denounced GOP leaders for placing freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on the House education committee.
Pelosi says Greene, a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, has “mocked the killing of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary school.”
That comment is a reference to social media posts first reported by Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog group, in which Greene pushed conspiracy theories or “liked” posts that challenged the veracity of mass shootings at schools in Newtown, Connecticut, and Parkland, Florida.
“What I am concerned about is the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives who is willing to overlook, ignore those statements,” said Pelosi.
Pelosi says GOP leaders' decision to assign Greene to the education panel was “absolutely appalling.”
Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, the head of the House education committee, echoed Pelosi’s sentiments in a statement Thursday. He claims House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is sending a clear message about the views of the Republican party with the appointment of Greene.
“House Republicans have appointed someone to this committee who claimed that the killing of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax,” Scott wrote. “House Republicans have appointed someone to this committee who claimed that the killing of 14 students and three teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was staged.”
Greene is also facing heat over a recently resurfaced video she posted on social media in 2019 that show her confronting a survivor of the Parkland shooting and baselessly claiming he was being paid to advocate for stricter gun laws.
“House Republicans have appointed someone to this committee who chased and berated a 17-year-old survivor of a mass school shooting, and then celebrated this behavior by posting it on social media,” Scott continued in his statement.
Before Greene joined Congress, she also supported Facebook posts that advocated violence against leading Democrats and the FBI.
While some Republicans are now condemning the activity, it's hardly a surprise. Facebook posts surfaced last year showing she’d expressed racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views.
Top Republicans denounced her at the time. But the opposition faded when she won a seat in Congress. The GOP has largely embraced Greene lately, making it harder to distance from her now, especially when many of her views were already well known.
