Pelosi blasts GOP leaders for putting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Education Committee

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday blasted Republican leadership for giving Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a seat on the Education Committee despite the freshman congresswoman’s apparent belief in baseless conspiracy theories about the Newtown, Conn., and Parkland, Fla., school shootings.

“What I’m concerned about is the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives who were willing to overlook, ignore those statements,” Pelosi said during her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill when asked about Greene’s rhetoric.

“Assigning her to the Education Committee when she has mocked the killing of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, when she has mocked the killing of teenagers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — what could they be thinking? Or is ‘thinking’ too generous a word for what they might be doing? It’s absolutely appalling.”

Pelosi said the “focus” should be on GOP leaders, and that Greene’s presence on the Education Committee showed the “disregard they have for the death of those children.”

“It’s really beyond the pale,” the House speaker said.

Earlier this week, CNN published old Facebook posts that showed Greene had indicated support for executing prominent Democrats, including Pelosi, before she ran for Congress in 2020. In one post, from January 2019, Greene liked a comment that said a “bullet to the head would be quicker” to remove the House speaker.

Posts on Greene’s Facebook account also expressed support for baseless conspiracy theories about the school shootings in Newtown and Parkland. “Exactly!” she wrote in response to a post saying the Parkland massacre was a “false flag planned shooting.” She agreed with another post claiming that the Newtown shooting, in which 20 children were killed, was staged.

Greene, who has supported the QAnon conspiracy theory in the past and has a long history of making racist comments, was elected to the House in November after winning the GOP primary in a heavily Republican district.

“These comments are deeply disturbing,” a spokesperson for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday, “and Leader McCarthy plans to have a conversation with the Congresswoman about them.”

In a statement posted to Twitter, Greene said she had had teams of people manage her social media accounts over the years, implying that some of the comments and likes weren’t hers.

On Wednesday morning, Fred Guttenberg, the father of a Parkland student who died in the 2018 school shooting there, posted a video of Greene harassing Parkland survivor and gun legislation advocate David Hogg outside the Capitol.

On Wednesday night, Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., announced that he planned to introduce a resolution to oust Greene from Congress over her social media posts supporting violence against Democrats.

The resolution is almost certain to fail, as a two-thirds majority is required to expel a member from the House, where Democrats hold a razor-thin majority.

Pelosi also told reporters that she planned to meet with retired Gen. Russel L. Honoré to conduct a security review of the Capitol complex following the deadly Jan. 6 riot.

House Democrats have openly expressed concern over their safety in the wake of the siege. The Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin Wednesday warning of ongoing domestic violence threats to lawmakers, including when they return to their home districts.

Pelosi reiterated her belief that a supplemental review would be needed to assess if some GOP members pose a threat to their Democratic colleagues when “the enemy is within.”

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