Jacobs votes to bar Greene from committees; Reed doesn't

"I was very troubled by many of the things, statements and assertions she made," said Jacobs, who, in voting to reject Greene's committee membership, made his first major break with Donald Trump allies in the Republican Party. 

"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."

Jacobs' vote stands in sharp contrast to that of Rep. Tom Reed, a Corning Republican who voted to keep Greene on congressional committees. Reed said Greene had recanted her conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric and therefore deserved a chance to serve on committees.

The Democratic-led House voted to oust Greene from the Education and Budget committees by a 230-199 vote.

In addition to Jacobs, Reps. John Katko of the Syracuse area and Nicole Malliotakis of Staten Island were among the 11 Republicans voting to oust Greene from committees.

Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of the North Country, along with GOP Reps. Lee Zeldin and Andrew Garbarino of Long Island, joined Reed in voting to keep Greene on committees.

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.

And 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."

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. "She disavowed this extreme rhetoric. And I hope she publicly goes out there. What she did last night in the conference needs to be done, in my opinion, in public." 

Greene later took to the House floor to say that she rejected QAnon and accepted that 9/11 really happened, but she also devoted large sections of her floor speech to bashing the media.

Reed called Greene's earlier rhetoric "appalling," but he also noted that some Democrats have engaged in divisive rhetoric.

"What I will say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle is that you know, as you point fingers across the aisle, make sure you always remember the life lesson that those fingers also have a facing back at you," Reed said. "And if we are truly united in taking on extremism, like I hope we are, then we should stand together going forward, that whenever a member of Congress engages in the extremism, violent type of rhetoric, we can ... come together and say that that rhetoric is unacceptable."

Reed's vote was surprising because he is a moderate Republican and the GOP co-chair of the House Problem Solvers Caucus, as well as a potential candidate for governor in 2022.

Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, pounced as soon as he saw Reed's vote.

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.

But 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."

While Jacobs and Reed disagreed about Greene, they both said they voted to keep Rep. Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican who voted to impeach Trump, in her position chairing the House Republican conference. Pro-Trump Republicans had demanded her ouster, but she survived a Wednesday vote on the issue by a lopsided margin.