Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, resisted the Democrats in her opening comments Friday after Parliament decided to remove her committee duties – and defiantly advocated leading the noisy Trump wing of the Republican Party .
“I woke up this morning and literally laughed and thought about what kind of idiots the Democrats (+11) are for giving someone like me free time,” she wrote on her personal Twitter account.
“In this tyrannical Democratic government, the Conservative Republicans have no say in the committees anyway,” she said, adding, “Oh, this will be fun!”
Ms. Greene responds to her public reprimand the same way that former President Donald J. Trump, a role model and ally, responded to him – by hurling insults.
Unlike Mr. Trump, she pulled the curtain back to reveal her political approach and admitted that Democrats helped bolster her prominence on social media and mass media.
Ms. Greene, 46, voiced the saga at a press conference on Capitol Hill as a fight for free speech, lamenting that in their first lengthy remarks since their withdrawal, Republicans were told that their white skin makes them naturally racist on their committees the day before.
She began with a free-running speech in which she chastised the media for reporting on her, stating that the Republican Party belongs to Donald J. Trump and “belongs to no one else”.
She complained that losing committee posts “deprived her of the representation of my constituents to work for them,” adding that, as a successful business owner, she would have been a valuable voice on the budget committee.
A moment later, however, she claimed the decision had “freed” her from “wasting my time” with the tiny details of the legislation.
On Thursday, Democrats warned that the unwillingness of House Republicans to punish any of their own posed a threat to their party and the country as a whole.
“If consent to propose violence of any kind is allowed to go uncontrolled, it is a cancer that can metastasize our nation’s body politics,” said Steny H. Hoyer, the House Majority Leader, in a speech on the house floor when Ms. Greene in sat nearby.
Ms. Greene’s determination to remain in the limelight even erased the low hopes of Republican House leaders that Ms. Greene, strengthened by her devotion to Mr. Trump, would calm down after her reprimand on behalf of party unity.
On Thursday, 11 Republicans, along with all of the Chamber’s Democrats, cut their committee duties. Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, had refused to discipline them after robbing Iowa Rep. Steve King of his duties two years earlier.
As a result, there were deep divisions among Republicans over how to move forward as a party. In the days leading up to the vote on Ms. Greene, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the most powerful Republican in Washington, denounced what he called “crazy lies” and claimed that such conspiracy theories were a “cancer” in the world party.
Several other high-ranking Republican senators had denounced Mrs. Greene with him, saying that she could not become the face of the party.
Hours before her Friday tweet, Ms. Greene, who has allied with the QAnon conspiracy movement, tried to promote anti-Jewish tropes and suggest violence against political opponents, downplaying her previous statements and posing as a serious newcomer trying to represent her constituents.
In emotional expressions on the floor of the house, Ms. Greene expressed regret for her previous comments and disapproved of many of her most eccentric and disgusting statements. She said she believed the September 11, 2001 attacks “absolutely happened” and that school shootings were “absolutely real”, having previously suggested that aspects of both be staged.
Asked by a CNN reporter On Friday, if she were to apologize for some of her most offensive comments made prior to her election to Congress, Ms. Greene initially stood firm and urged the reporter to apologize for the network’s coverage of the Trump-Russia investigation .
When asked again – from another reporter – Ms. Greene offered her first unequivocal apology.
“Of course I’m sorry for saying all the things that are wrong and offensive,” replied Ms. Greene. “And I mean that sincerely, and I like to say that. I think it’s good to tell when we’ve done something wrong. “