WASHINGTON — A Democratic congressman from California on Friday introduced a resolution to expel Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Congress, charging the Georgia Republican with a history of trafficking in conspiracy theories that "advocated violence against our peers, the speaker and our government."
It's unclear if Rep. Jimmy Gomez's resolution will be put up for a vote, and even if it is, it's unlikely to get the high benchmark needed to give Greene the boot. Greene's incendiary social media history got her removed from her committee posts last month by a vote of 230-199, which is well below the two-thirds vote that would be needed to expel her.
Gomez said Friday on the House floor that he was compelled to put forward the resolution because, "I believe some of my Republican colleagues, and one in particular, wish harm upon this legislative body."
"It is what I believed after this chamber was turned into a crime scene just 10 weeks ago," Gomez said, referring to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.
"I take no joy in introducing this resolution but any member who incites political violence and threatens our lives must be expelled. And I will do everything I can in my power to protect our democracy and keep all my colleagues safe," he said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters at her weekly press conference that Gomez's resolution doesn't reflect leadership's position, but, “members are very unhappy about what happened here and they can express themselves the way they do. What Mr. Gomez did is his own view."
Greene's office had no immediate comment on the resolution, and while she frequently comments on Twitter, the congresswoman's campaign said her account had been suspended for 12 hours. The campaign said they were not given any explanation for the suspension, which Twitter said later was the result of a mistake.
"At around 1:00AM, in the dark of night, Twitter chose to silence a sitting member of Congress facing an unprecedented political attack by House Democrats. This move eliminated any possibility for Congresswoman Greene to defend her reputation, her seat, and most importantly the votes of 230,000 Georgians in the 14th District on the Twitter platform," Greene's campaign said in a statement.
In a message posted on the social media site Telegram, Greene suggested Gomez's resolution and Twitter's actions were linked.
"Today Democrats are introducing a resolution to EXPEL me from Congress. And all of a sudden overnight, Twitter suspended me at 1 am for 12 hours for absolutely no reason, with no explanation. They're doing everything they can to silence me because I am a threat to the Swamp!" she said in the post.
A spokesperson for Twitter maintained it was an innocent mistake. "We use a combination of technology and human review to enforce the Twitter Rules across the service. In this case, our automated systems took enforcement action on the account referenced in error. This action has been reversed, and access to the account has been reinstated," the spokesperson said.
Twitter suspended Greene's account for 12 hours in January, saying she'd repeatedly violated the company's misinformation policy.
Greene, a freshman who won a Republican primary and then ran virtually unopposed, has come under fire for expressing support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, embracing calls for violence against top Democrats and suggesting that the Sandy Hook and Parkland school shootings were staged.
Ahead of the vote to strip her of her committee posts last month, she distanced herself from her prior statements, saying they "do not represent my values."
"I was allowed to believe things that weren't true," she said.
Dareh Gregrogian reported from New York. Alex Moe and Haley Talbot reported from Washington.
