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Republican Senate leader calls US lawmaker a cancer on party: report
WASHINGTON, Feb 2, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Top US Senate Republican Mitch
McConnell reportedly launched scathing criticism Monday of a controversial
firebrand in his party, assailing congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene as a
“cancer” to the Republican brand.
Greene, who has supported debunked conspiracy theories by far-right
movement QAnon and echoes former president Donald Trump’s baseless claims of
rigging in the 2020 election, is facing mounting anger over her incendiary
rhetoric.
In a statement to The Hill, McConnell warned that the first-term Georgia
lawmaker’s embrace of “loony lies and conspiracy theories” is a “cancer for
the Republican Party,” which is already deeply divided over its path forward
in the post-Trump era.
“Somebody who’s suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on
9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons
crashed JFK Jr.’s airplane is not living in reality,” McConnell said.
Greene has caught flak for her social media activity, including posting
video of herself harassing a school shooting survivor and “liking” posts
about executing leading Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Greene’s rhetoric “has nothing to do with the challenges facing American
families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party,”
McConnell said.
Greene responded swiftly to the jibes.
“The real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know
how to lose gracefully,” she posted on Twitter. “This is why we are losing
our country.”
McConnell, a Trump ally who broke with the outgoing president in December
over his repeated insistence that the election was stolen from him, did not
mention Greene by name in his statement, according to The Hill.
But the fierce denunciation by the leading Republican in the upper chamber
in Congress suggests McConnell is acutely aware of the potential damage she
could inflict on the party as it mounts an effort to retake the House and
Senate in the 2022 midterm elections.
Greene claims she enjoys support from Trump, and said Saturday that the two
spoke by telephone. She also stressed she will “never apologize” as she faces
a backlash over her remarks and actions.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is expected to meet with Greene this
week as pressure mounts on him to take action.
Democrats are threatening to hold a floor vote this week to oust Greene
from the House Education and Labor Committee and the Budget Committee if
McCarthy does not remove her.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0850 hrs