Teresa Leger Fernandez:
We had our last vote just a bit ago. And our last vote was removing representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from her assignment to the house education and labor committee. And it was really a very emotional vote for many, because it was a statement about who we are. And the Republican party did nothing other than give her a standing ovation when she spoke on the floor. And everyone got up and said, Oh, we condemn this, we condemn that, but they didn’t take any action. And the last speech was given by Steny Hoyer, who is the majority floor leader. He loves history. When we first met with him he took us around the Capitol and kept talking about this history and that history. And I think that people for whom this is their work love history, they recognize the history of the place. And I think I said that on my first or second day, how you realize you’re sitting in a place of history and at the same time making decisions about our future. You’re in a time capsule.
So he quoted a couple of people, but one of them was that evil thrives when good people do nothing when they see it. And so he kept repeating that theme about doing nothing and blew up a picture of Marjorie Taylor Greene holding an AR 57 in the picture saying, Democrat’s worst nightmare. And basically there are three Democrat women behind her. And if that is not going to give you a nightmare, that your colleague is raising her gun against you, then what is? And he kept raising up that Republicans did remove somebody from their committees, Representative King was removed from his committee for saying some fairly racist stuff. So it was nothing in comparison to the horrible things that Marjorie Taylor Greene has said and called for. And so it really in the end was about who are we? And today the house Republicans said, we are the party that will not censure one of our own, regardless of how outrageous and evil and vicious and violent her statements are.
Mary-Charlotte Domandi:
It really makes me wonder what they mean then when they say that they want to be bi-partisan.
TLF:
Yeah. I mean, if you stand up and say, we should not do this because we should be about unity, but you do not censure, because they have the ability to not assign her to any committees, and you refuse to do anything to her because you are so afraid of the Q-Anons in your primaries and in your districts, then that’s who you are. And it’s not about unity. It’s about, we will say words, but take no action. And I love that that was the thing and then the people who spoke were, or were asked to speak, were either from Georgia or Muslims or had experience with school shootings. And so it was powerful in a way that I hadn’t expected. I didn’t issue any statement about it because I want to focus on what we’re trying to do, bridges, the budget conciliation, and what need for the kids, these kinds of things. But I am proud of my caucus for saying, we cannot do nothing.
