Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern has called House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy a "coward" for his refusal to deal more robustly with Congresswoman Marjory Taylor Greene.
McGovern, who represents Massachusetts' 2nd congressional district, told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Friday that McCarthy was afraid to confront believers in the QAnon conspiracy theory.
McCarthy has come under increasing pressure to strip Greene of her committee assignments following a series of media reports showing Greene engaging in conspiracy theories.
McGovern is chair of the House Rules Committee and called McCarthy a "coward" for not dealing with Greene.
"He's afraid to take on people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and the most extreme elements of his party," McGovern told Cooper.
"The people who buy into these crazy conspiracy theories, these QAnon theories, and I think he thinks that that's where the energy and the excitement in the Republican Party is right now. And it really is sad because the party of Lincoln has become the party of conspiracy theories," McGovern said.
Greene had previously expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory, which posits that some senior Democrats are part of a cabal of child-eating Satanic pedophiles, but later disavowed it while running for Congress.
However, recently resurfaced videos and social media posts show Greene engaging in other unfounded conspiracy theories, including the idea that the deadly 2018 California wildfires were started by a Jewish-owned space laser.
"What she's said and the way she's behaved is appalling. She's not alone in that," McGovern told CNN. "She's embraced conspiracy theories questioning the authenticity of the school shootings in Sandy Hook and Parkland. I met with the parents of both the shootings and it was heartbreaking.
"To have someone like her question this terrible tragedy is offensive. It is sick. And, you know, she's embraced posts that have threatened my colleagues including the Speaker of the House."
"She has dishonored her office, she has dishonored the institution, she should resign and Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leadership, should urge her to resign. Certainly, they shouldn't be putting her on the Education Committee," McGovern said.
"The bottom line is they're afraid to stand up, Kevin McCarthy needs to grow a spine for the good of the Republican Party and the good of the country," he said.
Greene is currently seated on the House Education and Labor and Budget Committees. Her previous claims that some school shootings were faked have led to calls for her removal from the education panel.
