Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) blasted “loony lies” by freshman Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) as a “cancer” to the GOP, in a floor speech on Monday.
Greene has drawn scrutiny for past statements on social media in support of conspiracy theories, such as QAnon, the belief that the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were a hoax, and that the Rothschild family used space lasers to start California wildfires.
“Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country,” McConnell said in a statement first provided to The Hill, not referring to Greene by name. “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. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.”
Greene took to Twitter to respond to McConnell.
The real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully.
This is why we are losing our country.
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) February 2, 2021
“The real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully. This is why we are losing our country,” Greene wrote.
McConnell also defended Representative Liz Cheney — the number three House Republicans, who voted to impeach President Trump and has openly feuded with Taylor Greene — as “a leader with deep convictions and the courage to act on them.”
“She is an important leader in our party and in our nation,” McConnell said in the statement, first reported by CNN. “I am grateful for her service and look forward to continuing to work with her on the crucial issues facing our nation.”
House GOP leadership appointed Greene to the Education Committee last week in a move criticized by Democrats, who cited a 2019 video of the representative harassing a survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., N.Y.) has reportedly threatened to bring the issue to the House floor if Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) does not remove Greene from the committee.