KEVIN McCARTHY WANTS YOU TO BELIEVE HE WAS ALWAYS TROUBLED BY MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE'S PRONOUNCEMENTS

Kevin McCarthy will do nothing about Marjorie Taylor Greene.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced no disciplinary actions against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in a statement released as he met with his caucus.

During the meeting, he told members he did not want to remove Greene from her committee assignment, according to a senior GOP source in the room.

As a result,

The House is set to vote on removing Greene from her committee assignments on Thursday.

In McCarthy's statement, he pretends that he's always taken a principled stand against Greene.

Past comments from and endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene on school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference. I condemn those comments unequivocally. I condemned them in the past. I continue to condemn them today.

But here's what Politico told us in August, shortly before Greene won the Republican runoff that essentially guaranteed her election in November:

Of the top three GOP leaders in the House, only House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana has helped Greene’s opponent, neurosurgeon John Cowan, raise money and contributed to his campaign....

POLITICO reported in June that Greene had posted hours of Facebook videos in which made a trove of racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic comments — including an assertion that Black people “are held slaves to the Democratic Party,” and that George Soros, a Jewish Democratic megadonor, is a Nazi.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in June — through his spokesman, Drew Florio — that he found those comments “appalling,” and he had “no tolerance for them.” But Florio said last week that McCarthy is remaining neutral and letting the primary process play out — a stance that likely does not signal urgency to donors or outside groups.

And then shortly after Greene won her runoff, Politico reported:

McCarthy’s office ... said Wednesday that Greene will be welcomed into the GOP conference and given seats on congressional committees, provided she wins in November. A McCarthy spokesman added that they “look forward” to Greene “and all of our Republican candidates across the country” being victorious on Election Day.

And he could have rejected her outright after she won.

... Republicans don’t have to accept her into their conference even if she wins the election running as a GOP candidate. The Republican and Democratic caucuses in Congress decide whom to allow into their respective ranks, and there is no requirement that leadership give Greene a committee assignment either.

Instead, he's giving her a mulligan.

I ... made clear [to Greene] that as a member of Congress we have a responsibility to hold ourselves to a higher standard than how she presented herself as a private citizen. Her past comments now have much greater meaning. Marjorie recognized this in our conversation. I hold her to her word, as well as her actions going forward.

Yeah, good luck with that, Kevin.

McCarthy makes clear in his statement that the campaign to strip Ilhan Omar of her committee assignments isn't just a backbenchers' fever dream -- Republicans will do this to Omar, and to Eric Swalwell and Maxine Waters, as soon as McCarthy is Speaker.

While Democrats pursue a resolution on Congresswoman Greene, they continue to do nothing about Democrats serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee who have spread anti-Semitic tropes, Democrats on the House Intelligence and Homeland Security Committee compromised by Chinese spies, or the Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee who advocated for violence against public servants.

McCarthy mischaracterizes all three, and never explains why what they've said or done is morally equivalent to rooting for the killing of the president of the United States and members of Congress.

It's likely that Greene and her ilk will continue to say crazy and horrifying things, and it's possible that the GOP will be increasingly marginalized as a result, and that this will prevent McCarthy from ever becoming Speaker. Let's hope.

*****

UPDATE:

Source tells me that roughly half the House GOP conference gave Marjorie Taylor Greene a standing ovation after she rose to speak a few min ago.

— Cameron Joseph (@cam_joseph) February 3, 2021

It's too late. She's the leader of the GOP now, or at least of the House Republican caucus. She'll be the next Republican Speaker of the House, not Kevin McCarthy.