GOP members of Congress may be supportive of Donald Trump in public, but when they held a secret vote last night, it was a different story. House Republicans met for five hours on Wednesday. They held two votes. One to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments and another to remove Rep. Liz Cheney’s from her leadership position because she voted to impeach Donald Trump.
Greene, the QAnon conspiracy backer, will keep her committee assignments, at least for a few more hours when the full house, led by Democrats, votes to take away those posts.
But, here’s the interesting part. Republicans held a secret ballot on whether to keep Cheney in power. Trump has lashed out at Cheney and if she was truly on the outs, she’d be gone from the leadership. Politico’s Playbook writes of what happened behind closed doors:
For years, they’ve talked smack behind Trump’s back as they praised him publicly in order to appease the base. Wednesday night put those private versus public sentiments in particularly stark relief: 145 Republicans backed Cheney for her job, while only 61 did not — even as most refused to defend her. What gives? The vote was by secret ballot, so lawmakers could bash Cheney in public but support her in private — i.e. when it actually mattered — without fear of repercussion.
As for Greene, she reportedly apologized and received a standing ovation from part of the caucus. Playbook notes:
Many Republicans now plan to give Greene a chance. She received a standing ovation at the conference meeting after she disavowed many of her previous beliefs. She told a story about a dark point in her life when she apparently turned to QAnon, according to a person in the room. She said that was a mistake, walked back suggestions that 9/11 and school shootings were a hoax and apologized for how her past statements were affecting them all.
Keep in mind what Greene has said over the past few years. The HIll writes:
Various outlets have unearthed remarks by Greene supporting the QAnon conspiracy theory, which posits that Democrats and Hollywood are behind an international child sex peddling scandal; backing violence against Democratic officials; arguing that schools shootings were staged to win support for gun control; and suggesting that California’s wildfires were caused by a space laser to make way for a high-speed rail project linked to PG&E and the Rothschilds.