A petition calling for the expulsion of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) has amassed tens of thousands of signatures, amid her latest controversy in which she compared rules in the House of Representatives on wearing masks to the Holocaust.
The petition, authored by former Trump supporter-turned-Democrat David Weissman, has over 170,000 signatures as of today. Weissman addressed the petition to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California), implying that it is the latter’s responsibility to encourage Republicans to join with Democrats in removing Greene from office.
“I used to believe the Republican Party stood for decency, family values and good faith principles, but any continued support of Marjorie Taylor Greene, renders that demonstrably untrue,” Weissman wrote. “She is an active security threat to her colleagues, is unfit to serve the good people of this country, and she’s directly harmed our civil liberties and freedoms with her divisive and hateful rhetoric.”
Greene has a history of disturbing rhetoric and actions inside and out of Congress. Earlier this week during an interview on a conservative podcast, Greene made the abhorrent comparison while criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) for keeping rules on masking in place as many House Republicans refuse to get a vaccination for COVID-19.
“We can look back in a time and history where people were told to wear a gold star. And they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany,” Greene said. “This is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.”
Later, Greene doubled-down on her alarming rhetoric, citing a news article about a grocery store placing labels on employees’ name tags to indicate whether they were vaccinated.
“Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star,” Greene said.
Greene was met with severe criticism for comparing mask-wearing and vaccinations to one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) expressed disgust at the Georgia congresswoman’s words, and implored Republicans to reconsider her relationship to their party.
“Greene should change her rhetoric and behavior if she intends to remain a Member of the House,” Hoyer said on Wednesday. “The time for talk is over. Republican Members need to ask themselves why they would continue to want to associate with someone who engages in this kind of behavior.”
Earlier this week, Pelosi also condemned Greene’s comments, describing them as “so beyond reprehensible” that they should have “no place in our country.”
A number of Republicans have expressed frustration with Greene’s comments, including McCarthy, who called her words “wrong” in a statement he made in response to her.
Greene’s “intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling. The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity committed in history. The fact that this needs to be stated today is deeply troubling,” McCarthy added.
But that didn’t deter Greene from continuing to defend her statements. During an interview with Newsmax on Wednesday evening, Greene blasted McCarthy for not trying to come to her defense.
“Nancy Pelosi stands with their own, and Kevin McCarthy never had to say a word. He could have said, ‘You should ask Marjorie about her words and ask her what she has to say.’ That would have been the right answer for him, so it’s unfortunate that he took this route” in criticizing her, she said.
Greene also faces immense criticism for her extreme harassment of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York). Greene was seen earlier this month berating and screaming at Ocasio-Cortez in the halls of Congress, describing the New York congresswoman as a “terrorist sympathizer” and calling her “a chicken” for refusing to debate her on the Green New Deal.
Pelosi responded by raising the possibility of an ethics investigation into Greene’s actions.
Earlier this year, initial calls for Greene to face expulsion came after comments of hers resurfaced on social media that were found to be equally hateful and alarming, with some tied to QAnon conspiracy theories.
Some of her comments included apparent endorsement of calls to execute Democrats in Congress. Greene also “liked” a post that called for putting “a bullet to the head” of Speaker Pelosi.
Greene escaped expulsion after it was clear there were not enough votes in the House to kick her out. Instead, the House voted to remove Greene from all of her committee assignments, with every Democrat and only 11 Republicans voting in favor of the measure.