Morning Joe hosts blast ‘pathetic’ Kevin McCarthy for being ‘afraid’ of Marjorie Taylor Greene

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy was called "pathetic" and "afraid" by the hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" for his apparent reluctance to confront Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.  

Ms Greene, a Republican Congresswoman from Georgia, has come under fire for comments she made promoting numerous conspiracy theories, including QAnon, 9/11 trutherism, and the belief that the Parkland shooting was faked.  

Troves of damning information on Ms Greene was shared on social media in recent weeks. Screenshots from Ms Greene's Facebook show her liking comments calling for the execution of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. A video from before she was elected to Congress shows her demanding that Muslim Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib re-take their oaths of office, but swear in on a Bible rather than a Quran. Another video shows her harassing the survivors of the Parkland school shooting, which she refuses to admit was a real event.  

In the wake of the revelations about Ms Greene, Democratic Rep. Cori Bush has changed her office to get further away from her, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is denounced her.  

"Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country. Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.'s airplane is not living in reality," Mr McConell said on Monday. Though he does not refer to her by name, it is clear the Senator is referring to her.  

On Morning Joe, the hosts discussed the Republican response to Ms Greene, criticising it for not going far enough.  

"You know, Mitch McConnell talked about the crazy conspiracy theories about 9/11, JFK Jr., Sandy Hook," Joe Scarborough said. "He didn't even have to touch on, although it's been discussed before, the other horrific things she's put on Facebook through the past years about the assassination of Nancy Pelosi, the lynching of Barack Obama, the lynching of Hillary Clinton and these other horrific actions, as well calling for violence against presidents, secretaries of state. Not violence, the killing of, the assassinations of our nation's leaders."

Co-host Willie Geist pointed out that Ms Greene is a freshman Congresswoman, and that her lack of seniority should make it easy for Republicans to punish her.  

"This is an easy one, which is why McConnell stepped out and said, 'Hey, look, Kevin McCarthy, if you're not going to say anything about a member of your caucus over on the House side,'" Mr Geist said. "Not only does Mitch McConnell not lob bombs over to the other side of the House, he doesn't even criticize Republicans out in the open. He may do it privately, but this was a full-throated, clear and detailed criticism of this freshman congresswoman because it's destroying the Republican brand and it's an easy thing to criticize. If you can't step out and criticize all the things you laid out, then where is the party? Where is the party?"

After praising Mr McConnell for taking a shot at Ms Greene, Mr Geist turned his attention to Mr McCarthy.  

"Democrats are moving to strip this woman of her committee assignments, they're going to vote to do that in the next few days, but Republicans, namely Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, has scheduled a meeting with her sometime this week -- 'I'll check in with her next week' -- instead of coming out publicly and saying what needs to be said to cross her, because he's afraid of her and afraid of her voters," Mr Geist added. "Think about that. The minority leader in the House is afraid of this back-bench congresswoman."

Mika Brzezinski, another host on the show, agreed.  

"Yeah, that's pathetic." she said.  

Ms Greene has complained that she is being censored - despite having her words and image broadcast over the three major cable news channels as well as hundreds of newspapers and news websites - and claimed she was the victim of elitism.  

"The DC Swamp and the Fake News Media are attacking me because I am not one of them. I am one of you. And they hate me for it," she wrote.

House Democrats said if the Republicans do not strip Ms Greene of her committee assignments, they will introduce a resolution to force the issue.  

One longshot resolution, introduced by Democrat Rep. Jimmy Gomez, seeks to have Ms Greene removed from Congress altogether.