Nation
House to vote on removing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from committee assignments

CORRECTION: The original version of this story said that Rep. Greene had already been voted out of her committees. The House is still deciding whether to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from those committees and will vote Thursday.
Standing on the floor of the House Thursday, an embattled Greene admitted that she had promoted and supported QAnon conspiracy theories and social media posts calling for violence against Democratic lawmakers and that she regretted them.
When describing her past social media activity regarding QAnon, Greene said she “stumbled across” the theory back in late 2017 and “got very interested in it.”
“So I posted about it on Facebook,” the freshman congresswoman said Thursday while wearing a “Free Speech” mask. “I read about it, I talked about it, I asked questions about it. The problem with that, though, is that I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true and I would ask questions about them and talk about them, and that is absolutely what I regret.”
“Because if it weren’t for the Facebook posts and comments that I liked in 2018,” she added, “I wouldn’t be standing here today and you couldn’t point a finger and accuse me of anything wrong because I’ve lived a very good life that I’m proud of […] and that’s what my district elected me for.”
“I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true and I would ask questions about them and talk about them and that is absolutely what I regret,” Greene continued. “If it weren’t for the Facebook posts and comments that I liked in 2018, I wouldn’t be standing here today and you couldn’t point a finger and accuse me of anything wrong, because I’ve lived a very good life that I’m proud of.”
Furthermore, Greene said that “later in 2018, when I started finding misinformation, lies, things that were not true in these QAnon posts, I stopped believing it.”
“I walked away from those things” she added, then saying she decided she was “going to work hard and try to solve the problems that I’m upset about.”
Politifact has reported that the Georgia congresswoman expressed support for certain elements of the QAnon conspiracy theory as recently as February 2019.
In January 2019, Greene also liked a Facebook comment saying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should get a “bullet to the head,” CNN reported last week. The month after which, the Georgia Republican during a Facebook Live session from Pelosi’s office said the House speaker would “suffer death or she’ll be in prison” for “treason.”
Also during her floor speech, Greene walked back her past comments about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, saying “9/11 absolutely happened.” She had previously questioned if one of the hijacked planes had actually crashed into the Pentagon, which they did alongside the two that crashed into both towers at the World Trade Center in New York and the one in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had chosen not to remove Greene from her committees but instead pushed for her to openly denounce her past comments.
You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.

Featured
Trump: Tanks to Ukraine could escalate to use of ‘NUKES’

Former President Donald Trump stated bluntly on Truth Social, “FIRST COME THE TANKS, THEN COME THE NUKES. Get this crazy war ended, NOW. So easy to do!”
Trump was referring to the escalation of war in Ukraine. He, like many other commentators and lawmakers, are warning that the decision to continue sending weapons – and now tanks – could potentially lead to the use of “nuclear weapons.”
It’s mission creep and it’s dangerous, they say.
Why? Because Russian President Valdimir Putin has indicated in two different speeches that he would use nuclear weapons to defend Russia, if needed. Those warnings are not just bluster but a very real possibility.
And the escalation of war is visible.
Russia launched 55 missiles strikes across Ukraine Thursday, leaving 11 dead. The strikes come one day after the United States and Germany agreed to send tanks to Ukraine in an effort to aide the country. 47 of the 55 missiles were shot down according to Ukraine’s Air Force command.
Eleven lives were lost and another 11 were injured additionally leaving 35 buildings damaged in the wake of the attacks. According to The New York Times, Denys Shmyhal, said in a post on Telegram. “The main goal is energy facilities, providing Ukrainians with light and heat,” he said.
Ukraine is now demanding that they need F-16 fighter jets. In a post on twitter Ukrainian lawmaker, Oleksiy Goncharenko said, “Missiles again over Ukraine. We need F16.”
Morning. Missiles again over Ukraine. We need F16.
— Oleksiy Goncharenko (@GoncharenkoUa) January 26, 2023
The US has abstained from sending advanced jets in the chances that a volatile decision could foster more dangerous attacks like former President Trump’s post on Truth referred to. If the US did authorize the decision to lend Ukraine the F-16 jets Netherlands’ foreign minister, Wopke Hoekstra, would be willing to supply them. According to The New York Times, Hoekstra told Dutch lawmakers, “We are open-minded… There are no taboos.”
F-16 fighter jets are complex to work on, they are not the average aircraft that can be learned in a matter of weeks. It can take months for pilots to learn how to fly these birds. European and US officials have the concern that Ukrainian forces could potentially use the jets to fly into Russian airspace and launch attacks on Russian soil.
Western allies are trying to avoid such a provocation, because that could lead to nuclear warfare in reference to what Putin has said he would do to defend his country.
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