CNN analysts explain what's wrong with Marjorie Taylor Greene's non-apology on the House floor
In a speech on the House floor Thursday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) tried to stave off calls for her to be removed from her committees for spreading QAnon lies for the past several years. She didn't apologize, instead she said she "regrets" believing in the conspiracies and then blamed the "left" and then equated QAnon with the media.
MSNBC reported that this speech was what earned her a standing ovation at the House Republican Caucus on Wednesday night. CNN's John King and Manu Raju asked why Greene was doing it now that she's being stripped of her committees after refusing to denounce her claims for the past several days. Greene even met with Donald Trump and announced that he was on "her side" and that she would not apologize. She's also been raising money off of the attacks for the past week. The photo above shows her wearing a mask saying "molon labe," a rallying cry that purports people will have their guns taken away, another right-wing and QAnon lie.
"The train has left the station already," said Raju. "The House is voting this afternoon."
"Let me just say that when a member of Congress has to get up on the floor of the House to say that school shootings and the attacks on 9/11 happened, that they were real, that is not the media's fault," said CNN host Brianna Keilar.
CNN's chief political analyst Gloria Borger said that she doesn't believe Greene's desire to put it all behind her.
"I think there are going to be some Republicans, obviously, who will be very, very willing to listen to her if they vote to support her, not to take her off the committees, because they could say, 'Look, she got up there and she apologized,'" said Borger. "As you pointed out, she did not apologize. What she said, 'Oh, those were a bunch of tweets. If there were not those tweets, there would be nothing.' Well, of course, we've seen the videos of her with David Hogg a student from Parkland. We've seen the video of her saying, 'Did we ever see the plane go into the building?' She is trying to make herself a 'cancel culture' victim in the Republican Party as someone who has been canceled unfairly. At 10:30 this morning, she sent out a tweet that doesn't sound very apologetic."
"Suddenly she is a symbol for Republicans, and I think Republicans will look and say, 'No, no, no, you are not my symbol for anything,'" continued Borger.
Adjunct Professor Sophia Nelson said that as a Christian she wants people to be forgiven and have redemption but that's not what this is.
"Marjorie Taylor Greene represents one of Maya Angelou's most famous quotes when she says, 'Believe people when they show who they are,'" said Professor Nelson. "She has shown time and again that this is who she is, and I find it interesting that in the 11th hour when she's about to face consequences for her actions, now she's contrite. What I fear is that we've given this woman a lot of air time, a lot of oxygen over the last couple of weeks, and now someone who was kind of a whacky Georgia congresswoman is touting the president's big lie. It's lying to the people. It's a false equivalency. It's what-aboutism. That's my fear for the future of this democratic republic. I don't know if we can withstand where half of the country or a good portion of it believes outright craziness and untruths and false equivalency, and many of us are saying, no, no, that's not right."
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