Nancy Pelosi Blasts GOP for Not Punishing Marjorie Taylor Greene for Remarks Embracing Conspiracy Theories

Speaker Nancy Pelosi verbally blasted her GOP colleagues for not punishing freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over her past and recent remarks that indicate she embraces many debunked and outlandish conspiracy theories. On Thursday, Pelosi spoke to reporters about the situation with Green, and openly questioned Republican leaders’ “sense of responsibility” to the U.S. Congress. This appears to be a direct reference to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s opting not to hold Greene accountable.

“I remain profoundly concerned about House Republicans’ leadership acceptance of extreme conspiracy theorists,” Pelosi said, then going on to specifically address some of the conspiracy theories that Greene has openly supported or indicated support for. “Particularly disturbing is their eagerness to reward a QAnon adherent, a 9/11 truther, a harasser of child survivors of school shootings.” Pelosi’s comments come as the House is set to vote on removing Greene from the House Budget and Education and Labor committees, which House Democrats set out to do only after House GOP leaders refused to take any action.

House Republicans held a four-hour closed-door meeting on Wednesday night, regarding Democrats’ protest over Greene being appointed to the education committee, specifically. They emerged with no intention to implement consequences for Green’s conspiracy theory support. “For some reason, they have chosen not to go down that path, even though Leader Hoyer gave Leader McCarthy sufficient notice that this was a path that we would follow,” Pelosi said.

Greene spoke on the House floor for roughly 10 minutes, ahead of the vote, and attempted to distance herself from her past claims by saying that her current values do not reflect who she is now. “This is what I ran for Congress on,” Greene stated. “I never once said during my entire campaign QAnon. I never once said any of the things that I am being accused of today during my campaign.”

She added, “I never said any of these things since I have been elected for Congress. These were words of the past. And these things do not represent me. They do not represent my district. And they do not represent my values.”

It’s unclear exactly what date Green officially began campaigning for a U.S. House seat, but it appears to have been sometime in 2019. Notably, that same year she was filmed taunting Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg, as he walked the streets in Washington D.C., and hurling conspiracy theory accusations at him. She defended herself by claiming that she was there to oppose Hogg’s “radical gun control agenda.” If she had already begun campaigning for a political seat when this clip was filmed, then her new claim that she “never once” voiced any conspiracy theories would be inaccurate. The timeline is not clear, however.