House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wore a smart blue mask with white rectangles that matched her fashionable suit with a zip up jacket.
In a contemptuous voice, she called freshman GOP U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, D-GA, a “threat,” and a “QAnon adherent,” “9/11 truther,” “harasser of child survivors of school shootings.”
That’s why, she said, Democrats were taking the extraordinary, unprecedented step of stripping Greene, a Republican, of her committee assignments.
“Who would imagine,” Pelosi asked, “that [Republican leadership] would put such a person on the education committee?”
Democrats have spent a lot of time in recent months talking about America’s racial divide but Green represents another kind of divide, the class divide.
Pelosi, one of America’s true elites, probably can’t imagine what motivates Greene (or voters in Greene’s district).
Greene was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She did not graduate from Yale or Harvard. And she’s from the deep south, Milledgeville, GA, which is just about as far as you can get from the beltway.
A Mandate From GA
Greene’s dad worked in home renovation and construction. She was the first in her family to graduate from college, the University of Georgia. A Christian, Greene admits she’s a sinner. She said abortion is the “worst thing the country has ever committed” and it should be “America first always and there is nothing wrong with that.”
Like her idol, former President Donald J. Trump, Greene is not a veteran politician. Her campaign slogan was “Save America, Stop Socialism!” She appeared in a video in which she held an AR-25 style rifle and warned “antifa terrorists” to “stay the hell out of Northwest Georgia.”
Yet, Greene won her district with 75% of the vote, which is the equivalent of a mandate.
Greene really couldn’t be farther apart on America’s class spectrum than Pelosi.
Pelosi lives in San Francisco and is a bona fide member of America’s ruling class. Her father was a member of Congress and mayor of Baltimore. Pelosi herself has served in Congress since 1987. Her net worth is estimated to be in excess of $100 million.
Free Speech
Before the vote, Greene spoke for ten minutes on the House floor. She pointedly wore a mask imprinted with the slogan “free speech.”
Greene argued the social media posts that critics have condemned her for all occurred prior to her election and she regrets them.
She said she changed her views in 2018 about the right-wing conspiracy group, QAnon, which reportedly holds Trump was battling an international and national pedophile ring. Greene said she realized she had been fed incorrect information. She also said she does not doubt that 9/11 and school shootings occurred and caused terrible harm to many.
Greene contends the media has grossly distorted her beliefs.
Furthermore, Green pointed to a double standard, noting the Democratic Party pushed the discredited conspiracy theory that Trump colluded with Russians. She also alluded to Democrats who supported violent Black Lives Matter rallies last summer.
“If this Congress is to tolerate members that condone rioters who attack police, occupy federal property, burn businesses and cities and yet wants to condemn me and crucify me on the public square for words that I said and I regret a few years ago, then I think we have a really big problem,” said Greene.
Greene contends she is “a very regular American, just like the people I represent in my district and most people around the country.”
Party Line Vote
As expected, the vote was 230 – 199. Democrats unanimously voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments, with the help of 11 Republican defectors.