Voting 230-199 to remove 46-year-old Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from Labor and Education committee assignments, the controversial Congresswoman got what she deserved, spewing utter nonsense in the past and more recently on social networks about school shootings and Sept. 11. Greene thinks school shootings at Newtown’s, Conn..Sandy Hook Elementary School and Parkand, Fl.’s Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School were “false flag” operations, not to mention the Pentagon’s Sept. 11 suicide flight by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorists. When Greene talked about Jewish lasers from space causing California’s wildfires, you knew the 46-year-old Trump supporter wasn’t playing with a full deck. Posting an image of herself with an AR-15 next to the “Squad,” including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), it was too much.
Stripping Greene of her committee assignments is a first step but not enough to let her serve as U.S. Congresswoman. No elected officials suffering from mental illness should be allowed to serve in Congress or any other elective office. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyers (D-Il.) talked about stripping Rep. Steven King (R-N.Y.) of his committee assignments for racist remarks, eventually defeated at the ballot box Nov. 8, 2020. But no matter how offensive King’s remarks, he did not question factual events in U.S. history, like tragic school shootings and Sept. 11. Greene’s past remarks mirror media trends on social networks to spew any propaganda as long as it advances a political agenda. New York Times wants Biden to appoint a “Reality Czar” to set the record straight when it comes to the most twisted disinformation and misinformation coming over the airwaves.
Removing Greene from her committee assignments doesn’t go far enough, requiring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to call for a mental health evaluation. It’s not enough to remove Greene form the Education and Labor Committees, requiring a careful evaluation for dangerous levels of paranoia. If the FBI saw photos of any citizen posing with an AR-15 assault rifle and making possible death threats against Pelosi and AOC, they would assess Greene for dangerousness, making terrorist threats. Green was quoted on Facebook in Jan. 2019 as agreeing with a post saying, “bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove Pelosi as House Speaker. Whatever her crazy statements, Congress must vet its elected representatives if, like in Greene’s case, she expresses views that look far detached from prevailing norms and reality.
Greene tried to defend herself in Congress before the House voted to strip her of committee membership. “These were words of the past and these things do not represent me,” blaming the media for distorting her views. Greene said she was a victim of “cancel culture,” a favorite meme of Republicans that don’t like when their conspiracy theories are called out in public. Democrats sometimes go too far, accusing Republicans of wild conspiracy theories for suggesting that irregularities took place in the Nov. 8, 2020 presidential election. Democrats tried to get Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) kicked out for daring to argue that Nov. 8, 2020 presidential election results should be investigated. It’s not a conspiracy theory to say that universal mail-in ballots were never used before in American history. Republicans aren’t traitors for questioning the legitimacy of the vote.
Greene’s public remarks and social media posts display and disturbing pattern that goes beyond questioning the Nov. 8, 2020 election but reflect her mental health status, accusing Jews of using lasers from space to start California wildfires. House and Senate leadership must take seriously such wild comments, not only because they’re anti-Semitic but because they reveal deeply disturbed thinking. McCarthy said he met with Greene to remind her she needs as a House member to reflect a “higher standard” for serving in elective office. McCarthy said Greene’s statements “on school shootings, political violence and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference.’ McCarthy made no effort to remove Greene from any committees, only said he told her she must meet a “higher standard” as a House member.
House leadership must not stop with Greene’s removal from committee assignments. It’s time to assess her fitness for office with an independent medical evaluation. Greene’s public remarks or comments on social media reflect a degree of paranoia that warrants a medical examination. Whether McCarthy likes it or not, House leadership must get a professional’s judgment whether or not she’s fit to serve as an elective representative. “And Kevin McCarthy and all these leaders, the leadership, and everyone is proving that they are all talk and not about action,” Greene said, repeating one of Trump common lines. “They are all about doing business as usual in Washington. And so what’s the difference between them and the Democrats? There isn’t a difference,” Greene said. Greene’s ramblings prove that she requires an urgent medical exam to determine her fitness for duty.
