Remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from education committee, biggest teaching union demands

Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was called a ‘future Republican star’ by Trump, is being blasted by prominent Republicans

Two major teaching unions in the US have demanded Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene be removed from the House Education Committee for spreading the discredited QAnon theory, downplaying school shootings and pushing election fraud conspiracies.

Writing a letter to House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) said Ms Greene was unfit for the crucial role of teaching America’s children.

“Conspiracy theories do not belong in our schools. Hate, racism and anti-Semitism do not belong in our schools. Bullying and harassment do not belong in our schools,” said the letter by the unions.  

“Greene has trafficked in all of these heinous activities. She has therefore disqualified herself from serving on the committee that plays a crucial role in the teaching and learning of America’s children and in ensuring their safe learning environments.”

It adds to mounting pressure on the Republican party to take action against Ms Greene, who has been dubbed a “cancer” in the party by Mitch McConnell.

Her fate is expected to be discussed by the Republicans on Wednesday in a private meeting.

The letter demanded condemnation of her “outrageous behaviour”, pointing to a viral video from last week that showed Ms Greene calling a survivor of the 2018 Parkland mass shooting a “coward”.  She earlier called the shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School a “false flag” incident.

A CNN report on her Facebook posts last week found that Ms Greene repeatedly demanded the execution of top Democrats, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Nancy Pelosi, in 2018 and 2019 before she was elected to Congress.

“The fact is, if any educator harassed students and called horrifying shootings false flags, there would be serious consequences. There should absolutely be consequences for a member of Congress, as well,” said the letter.

Democrats also threatened to act and demanded the removal of Ms Greene from all committees.

It is not known if Mr McCarthy, who is set to meet Ms Greene, plans to expel her from any committees or just discuss the issues with her.

Despite the criticism, Ms Greene still has one important Republican backer: Donald Trump. On Saturday, Ms Greene said she’d talked with the former president and retains his support.