WASHINGTON – As the House faced a vote on whether to bar a conspiracy-spouting lawmaker from House committees even though Donald Trump pronounced her "a future Republican star," you might presume that the local lawmaker most supportive of Trump would vote no, and that the "problem solver" eyeing a race for governor would vote yes.
You would presume incorrectly.
Republican Rep. Chris Jacobs of Orchard Park Thursday joined Democrats who voted to remove GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia from her committee assignments because of her past support of QAnon and other false conspiracy theories and her habit of liking social media posts backing violence against Democrats.
But hours after again hinting that he might run for governor, Republican Rep. Tom Reed of Corning voted to keep Greene on the Education and Budget committees.
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A deeper read of Jacobs' background, and Reed's, makes their votes seem less surprising, however. Jacobs has a background in education, and said he was troubled by Greene's prior arguments that some school shootings never happened. And Reed, while the Republican co-chair of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, voted with Trump 87.3% of the time during his years in Congress, according to FiveThirtyEight.com's "Trump Score."
The Democratic-led House voted to oust Greene from the Education and Budget committees by a 230-199 vote.
And afterward, Jacobs – a former Buffalo School Board member, a charter school founder and founder of the Bison Fund, which provides private education to disadvantaged youths – said his education background was "a determinant factor" in his decision.
"I was bothered by many things of hers but the videos of her following that young person who, you know, was a survivor of the Parkland shooting was just so disturbing and bothersome to me," Jacobs said. "And I thought it reflected incredible callousness or ignorance. Either one, I just thought, disqualifies her from being able to serve on the Education Committee, making federal education policy."
While Greene disavowed her earlier comments during a Wednesday meeting of the House Republican Conference, Jacobs said: "There was a fundraising email going out, you know, on her Twitter page that she's being attacked and so I think that made it a little disingenuous."
Jacobs' vote seemed surprising on the surface for two reasons. For one thing, only 11 House Republicans voted to oust Greene from committees. What's more, many of the chamber's most fervent Trump supporters defended her on the House floor – and Jacobs has been a fervent Trump supporter. For example, in January, Jacobs refused to vote to certify the election results of two states that helped swing the presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden, essentially joining an effort to overturn the will of the voters and grant Trump a second term.
That being the case, the Democrat who lost two congressional races to Jacobs wasn't impressed with his vote to remove Greene from House committees.
"I can’t believe how folks are falling over themselves to give 'credit' to a congressman who voted to support a coup (less than a month ago) because he passed the very low bar of voting to remove a dangerous person from her committee assignments," Democrat Nate McMurray said on Twitter.
Reed backed keeping Greene on the committees even though before coming to Congress, she voiced support for QAnon, the false conspiracy theory that alleges that leading Democrats eat children.
Greene has also questioned whether the 9/11 terrorist attacks and several mass school shootings have taken place, and has been filmed harassing David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla. In addition, Greene "liked" a Facebook post that said regarding removing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from leadership, "a bullet to the head would be quicker."
Politico reported that after Greene disavowed her calls for violence and her conspiracy theories at that Republican House Conference meeting Wednesday night, Reed stood up and thanked her.
In a conference call with reporters Thursday, Reed said: "This is something that we have taken care of on our Republican side of the aisle, so I will not be joining that Democratic call today absent some change in the text that I see or actions that are contrary to what I heard last night from Marjorie disclaiming this rhetoric and her positions prior to coming to Congress."
Asked if Greene should have been placed on the Education Committee in the first place, Reed cited the advice he gives his children about proper online behavior. But he also insisted that she deserves a chance to serve on committees like other members of Congress.
"I'm going to be obviously watching, all of you are going to be watching what she does," Reed added.Â
Reed called Greene's earlier rhetoric "appalling," but he also noted that some Democrats have engaged in divisive rhetoric.
Reed's vote may have seemed surprising because he is perceived as a moderate Republican and the GOP co-chair of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, as well as a potential candidate for governor in 2022.
Nevertheless, he long has had a conservative voting record. According to FiveThirtyEight, Reed voted in line with Trump's wishes 79.3% in 2019-2020 and 96.76% in the two years before that.
Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, pounced as soon as he saw Reed's vote to keep Greene on committees.
Reed "once again reveals his true colors as a Trump-enabling QAnon conspiracy coddling extreme partisan. Mr. Moderate he is not," Azzopardi said on Twitter.
Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, was also unforgiving of Greene's rhetoric.
"It seems to me that her social media provides numerous and compelling evidence of a member that has a propensity for violence against people she disagrees with politically," Higgins said. "So, you know, I think this is about, you know, future deterrence."
