Today’s GQP: Chock Full o’ Nuts & Proud of It
House Democrats disciplined Georgia Congressmember Majorie Tyler Greene because no Republican had the cajones to do so.
The best defense the GQP can muster is the claim made by South Carolina’s Nancy Mace that, "there are crazies on both sides," wherein she tried to match up Greene, a conspiracy theorist who openly supported the execution of Democratic politicians against California’s Rep.Maxine Waters, a career politician who gets mad sometimes about Republicans committing crimes.
Vice has the full list of Greene’s obscene—and publicly expressed—viewpoints here, with videos and tweets to document her stances.
https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1357143676540112897?s=20
Back in the good old days --January 2019, to be exact-- House Republican leaders removed Iowa’s Rep. Steve King from two committees as punishment for comments in a New York Times interview where he was quoted questioning why the terms "white nationalist" and "white supremacist" are considered offensive.
Greene’s offenses are worse than King’s because not only does she align with white supremacists, she’s also repeatedly indicated her support of domestic extremism and violence, including the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The Georgia Congressmember hasn’t backed down in the face of continuing revelations about her past. In fact, she’s fundraising off the controversy.
Via Talking Points Memo:
“Never before has a Republican been under attack like me since the Democrats tried to impeach and remove President Trump from office,” Greene’s fundraising email on Wednesday said. “And without your support, I have no way of defending myself.”
Greene went on to gripe about “Big Tech” banning her from sponsored ads and characterizing the backlash as “nasty smear tactics” before affirming she and her Trumpian rhetoric would not be intimidated.
“I and the America First agenda are not going anywhere!,” Greene’s fundraising email on Wednesday said. “More importantly I need you, the People, to have my back!”
https://twitter.com/ElieNYC/status/1357150084006367232?s=20
Senate Republicans, looking ahead to 2022 contests in swing states like Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, have been frantically trying to distance themselves from their House colleagues.
Via Daily Kos:
"It's beyond reprehensible for any elected official, especially a member of Congress, to parrot violent QAnon rhetoric and promote deranged conspiracies like the Pentagon wasn't really hit by a plane on 9/11," Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina tweeted Wednesday afternoon, after it became perfectly clear that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was sticking with Greene. "It’s not conservative, it’s insane."
The Washington Post also had a rundown of the Senate GOP's angst. Sen. Todd Young of Indiana called Greene "an embarrassment to our party," and in a bit of wishful thinking, adding, “In terms of the divisions within our party, she’s not even part of the conversation, as far as I’m concerned.”
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said, “Our big tent is not large enough to both accommodate conservatives and kooks.”
And Sen. John Thune of South Dakota framed the House GOP's dilemma as a simple choice: “Do they want to be the party of limited government . . . or do they want to be the party of conspiracy theories and QAnon?”
https://twitter.com/axios/status/1357169507693973507?s=20
Meanwhile, House Republicans used a secret ballot vote to retain Rep. Liz Cheney as their No. 3 leader. Her crime, in case you have forgotten, was being one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last month.
Freed from the possibility of being primaried by rabid Trumpanistas, the Republican conference gave her a 145-61 vote of confidence.
From the New York Times:
A fierce and at times painful debate played out in a private meeting in the Capitol on Wednesday night, as lawmakers rose to both air their grievances against Ms. Cheney and defend her.
Members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, some of whom led the charge to strip Ms. Cheney of her post, accused her of “aiding the enemy” by releasing an unsparing statement the day before the impeachment vote explaining why she was supporting the effort against Mr. Trump, according to people familiar with the discussion. Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, one of the former president’s fiercest defenders, said he felt Ms. Cheney could not represent a conference that had overwhelmingly voted against impeachment, given her own vote.
So voting her (very conservative) conscience amounted to Rep. Cheney aiding the enemy, while Rep. Greene encouraging participants in a violent insurrection that took seven lives and injured 140 law enforcement officers was no.big.deal.
Gotcha.
https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1357075750470393857?s=20
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I’d be remiss if didn’t include Randy Rainbow's latest video endeavor:
https://twitter.com/BarbraStreisand/status/1357114435232358403?s=20
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