Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Should the House of Representatives expel Marjorie Taylor Greene?

The thing with the current discussion about expelling Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene from the House is that she has boosted a call for the Speaker of the House to be assassinated, supported (at least de facto and possibly actively) the January 6 invasion of the Capitol, and publicly pimped an outrageous anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. This is one of those rare times where the idea that "the Constitution isn't a suicide pact" applies. The House does have the ability to expel a Member, and expelling one who has given them good reason to believe is a physical danger to them is an obvious move.

Nick Visser notes in this article that even Mitch McConnell is at least trying to pretend he disapproves of Greene's far-right radicalism (Nick Visser, A ‘Cancer’: Mitch McConnell Excoriates Marjorie Taylor Greene For Conspiracy Theories Huffpost 02/01/2021):
Greene has faced a firestorm of criticism after the media detailed her yearslong history of controversial social media posts. Before her election, she supported false claims that the Parkland, Florida, and Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings were staged, “liked” Facebook posts that called for the killing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and publicly mused that a space laser may have caused 2018’s deadly wildfires in California.
In what is probably the most famous case of a Member of Congress directly engaging in physical violence in the Capitol chambers, Slave Power South Carolina Congressman Preston's Brooke's notorious assault on anti-slavery Sen. Charles Sumner in 1858, Brooks was at least censured by the House. But he became a hero among defenders of slavery, and was re-elected to his House seat after the assault.

We can't say that the Civil War would have been somehow avoided if Brooks had been expelled by the House. But the fact that he wasn't must surely have been taken by the defenders of the Slave Power as a sign of weakness on the part of the free states.

Yes, expelling a Member of Congress is a power than can be abused, which means the Republicans will abuse it if they think they can get away with it. And with the Republican Party in its current Trumpified state, that's true whether or not the Democrats expel someone or not.

But even if Greene's voters may have sent her to Congress because they wanted her to physically threaten Pelosi and other Congresspeople, that doesn't mean the House has to accept that behavior from one of their Members.

I say, have an expulsion vote and let the Republican Members show us all where they stand on her threats and crass anti-Semitism.

An expulsion would require Republican votes, "The Constitution gives Congress the ability to impeach federal officials and judges, but not its own members. They can only be removed by expulsion, which requires a 2/3 vote." (Zachary Wolf, It's hard to expel a member of Congress. Here's what to know CNN 01/28/2021)

Wolf adds:
Only 20 federal lawmakers have been expelled in the history of the US (15 in the Senate and only 5 in the House). The vast majority of expulsions had to with the Civil War. There have been only two post-Civil War expulsions -- Rep. Michael Myers, a Pennsylvania Democrat, was kicked out after taking money from undercover FBI agents. The other was James Traficant, the Ohio Democrat, who was convicted of bribery charges.
TYT has been covering the MJT story, including: Marjorie Taylor Greene's INSANE Social Media Posts Exposed 06/28/2021:

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