Wednesday was coward night for the House GOP Conference. Republicans met for five hours to vote on whether to strip Rep. Liz Cheney of her leadership position and to talk over whether to take action against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. A secret vote gave Cheney a big win, with 145 Republicans voting to keep her as their conference chair, and just 61 voting against. In other words, many of the Republicans who not only voted against impeachment but voted to overturn election results in the hours after the attack on the Capitol also voted to keep Cheney in leadership. That gives some credence to claims that there were Republicans who were motivated solely by fear to give Donald Trump the votes he demanded on those. Cowards.
The next coward was Marjorie Taylor Greene herself. After days of hardcore Twitter posturing about how “I won’t back down. I’ll never apologize,” she … backed down and apologized. That was the right thing to do all along, but doing it in private to keep her colleagues from taking action against her while saying the opposite in public to keep the base riled up and the campaign contributions flowing? Dishonest coward. Not that we’d expect better of someone with her abysmal morals.
Greene expressed “contrition for some of her most outrageous comments made on social media—including questioning the 9/11 attacks, blaming a space ray directed by a Jewish cabal for a deadly wildfire and doubting school shootings,” The Washington Post reports. “She also, according to Republicans in the room, apologized for putting her colleagues in a difficult spot.”
The next coward is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who orchestrated the whole thing, and who defended Greene’s position on the education committee despite her claims that school shootings are hoaxes and her harassment of a survivor of the Parkland shooting. McCarthy is approaching peak wanting to have it both ways, saying he disapproves of Greene’s comments, hailing her for apologizing in secret, and most of all being angry that Democrats would dare take action where he won’t—Democrats have a vote planned to strip Greene of committee assignments.
McCarthy also came out of that long GOP meeting and lied to reporters, saying “I think it would be helpful if you could hear exactly what she told all of us. Denouncing Q-on, I don't know if I say it right, I don't even know what it is—any from the shootings, she said she knew nothing about lasers, all of the different things that have been brought up about her.” McCarthy knew how to say QAnon, and what it was, perfectly well last summer when he denounced Greene—then not yet part of his caucus—for her promotion of it. And going with Greene’s denial that she said the things she said? Uber-coward.
McCarthy’s big pitch to Republicans to support Cheney but also Greene was that “We need to unite for us to take the majority and govern.” It’s the Republican version of a big tent: You can promote insurrection or oppose insurrection, as long as you’ll vote to slash government spending, cut taxes for the wealthy, and support punitive policies toward marginalized communities.
The full House will vote on Greene’s committee assignments on Thursday. It is an unprecedented step. But so is having a member saying the kinds of things she’s said while having helped to incite an insurrection that left five dead at the U.S. Capitol, and their party refusing to take action of its own against them.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the sponsor of the resolution, said earlier in the week, “I am in the process of talking to Republicans, and although I don't have a lot of hope that I will attract Republican co-sponsors, I do expect that when we bring the resolution to the floor as a privilege resolution that it will attract Republican support, but not much.” After Wednesday night’s rallying-the-troops moment for Republicans, we’ll see about that.