WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Indiana's representatives voted along party lines as the House of Representatives removed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committees Thursday evening.
Reps. Andre Carson and Frank Mrvan, both Democrats, voted in favor of removing Greene. Indiana's seven Republicans in the House all voted against removal.
Greene, who was on the Education and Labor and Budget committees, faced the unprecedented punishment after Democrats said she was spreading hateful and violent conspiracy theories. She spoke Thursday in her own defense, wearing a mask that read "FREE SPEECH."
Three of Indiana's representatives posted statements about the vote on social media.
"Her extreme and dangerous statements make her unfit to serve on these committees, and in Congress altogether," Carson tweeted. "Long before she was elected, Rep. Greene advocated hatred, violence and dangerous conspiracy theories. After her election, she helped stoke the violent attack on the Capitol, where I was specifically targeted for being Muslim..
Carson went on to say he welcomes "respectful disagreement, but her words are downright dangerous."
Republican Rep. Trey Hollingsworth said the vote was "yet another design by the Democratic Majority to consolidate their own power and weaken Congress itself."
"I condemn Rep. Greene's rhetoric in the strongest of terms and deplore any language that incites violence or is discriminatory," Hollingsworth said in a statement. "But if condemnation was the Majority's intention, we'd be voting on - and I'd be supporting - a censure of Rep. Greene, not her removal from committee assignments."
Rep. Victoria Spartz, who grew up in Ukraine, cited her "enormous appreciation" for First Amendment rights in the U.S. in defending her vote.
"I might not like many things that my colleagues from both parties say, but I still will vigorously defend their 1st amendment rights and right to free speech, especially what they’ve said as private individuals before. And voters will decide if they’re the right representatives," she tweeted after the vote. "It is a slippery slope to start policing people’s opinions and our Congress will start resembling a communist Politburo if we’re not careful."
Eleven Republicans broke party lines overall, siding with Democrats to have Greene removed from the committees.
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