House Republicans said they will stand by controversial congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and will fight a Democratic push to remove her from a number of committees.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy condemned Marjorie Taylor Greene’s past remarks questioning school shootings, but he criticised a Democratic drive to oust the Georgia Republican from her committee assignments as a “partisan power grab”.
Mr McCarthy’s ridicule of the Democrats signalled he was dismissing bipartisan demands that the hard-right politician be punished for her online embrace of racist and violent views and bizarre conspiracy theories.
Mr McCarthy said Ms Greene’s comments “caused deep wounds” and that she had told him she would hold herself to a higher standard.
Also on Wednesday, in a 145-61 secret-ballot vote, House Republicans overwhelmingly rebuffed a rebellion by hard-right conservatives to toss Liz Cheney from the party’s leadership after she voted last month to impeach Donald Trump.
The decisions over Ms Greene and Ms Cheney have subjected Republicans to a politically agonising test of their party’s direction as they move beyond the Trump presidency.
Since Mr Trump grudgingly vacated the White House last month, the party has been ideologically adrift as it has struggled over whether to embrace his norm-busting divisiveness or the party’s more traditional, policy-oriented conservative values.
But as Wednesday’s internal showdowns concluded, Mr McCarthy and the House GOP decided against punishing two of their most high-profile women, whose views enrage opposite ends of the party’s spectrum.
The moves were typical of Mr McCarthy’s preference to avoid ruffling feathers as he charts his path to someday becoming House speaker.
“You know what that’s going to mean?” he told reporters after the lengthy evening meeting.
“Two years from now, we’re going to win the majority. That’s because this conference is more united. We’ve got the right leadership team behind it.”
