CNN analyst Nia-Malika Henderson said Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was “still a conspiracy theorist” after the congresswoman apologized for her past beliefs and actions during a House floor speech.
Henderson appeared on “Inside Politics” and watched Greene’s speech with host John King. After the speech, King acknowledged that Greene apologized for her past actions, but noted that she “allowed” herself to believe things that weren’t true and didn’t do her ”homework” on QAnon to realize it was “quackery.”
“It sounds like she’s still QAnon. I think what we don’t understand about conspiracy theories, and theories if we’re not in them, is the ways in which they talk, and maybe dog whistle certain things that we don’t necessarily understand because we’re not knee-deep in them,” Henderson responded. “I think what’s dangerous about this moment is she’s still a conspiracy theorist, but she’s sort of wrapping it in the language of conservative talk.”
Greene took to the House floor to give her speech prior to a vote on a proposal by House Democrats to strip her of all committee assignments, which includes the Budget Committee and the Education and Labor Committee. Greene clarified that she no longer believes the conspiracy theories she has been associated with and said that she was “grateful to be humbled.” (RELATED: ‘I Actually Believe In The First Amendment’: Jim Jordan Says Ilhan Omar Shouldn’t Lose Committee Assignments)
“She talked, for instance, about God creating man and woman. That really is sort of being anti-transgender. She talked about gun-free zones, and essentially saying that that’s why the shootings happened,” Henderson continued. “She’s advocating for guns being in school zones. She said 9/11 happened, but she didn’t say a plane flew into the Pentagon because that was initially what she was saying.”
Greene was criticized in recent days for previously expressing doubt that a plane had ever crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, as well as for a video showing her accosting Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg on the streets of Washington, D.C.
“I still think her elevation into Congress and getting on these committees, she’ll of course be off these committees if Democrats have anything to do with it, is very very dangerous. And I think she is going to be much more famous and have a much bigger platform going forward,” Henderson said. “She talks the language of conspiracy theorists. She is a fellow traveler with them, and I think this is a movement that is only going to get bigger. As the former president said, that she is the future star of this party, and I think Kevin McCarthy’s ignoring that poses a real danger for the Republican Party in this country.”