Marjorie Taylor Greene refuses to step down amid outrage from parents of school shooting victims

'They are coming after me because I'm a threat to their goal of Socialism,' controversial representative says

Marjorie Taylor Greene does not intend to resign her position from Congress amid intensifying calls for her expulsion from members of Congress and parents of school shooting victims.

The newly appointed lawmaker has fielded significant scrutiny over the last few days, following the emergence of a number of alleged social media interactions and controversial videos on her YouTube page.

Certain uncovered social media posts have appeared to show Rep Greene supporting conspiracies surrounding the 9/11 attacks and various school shootings in the US, suggesting they were fake or inside jobs.

Rep Greene was also seen heckling Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg in a video posted to her YouTube page in January 2020, prompting renewed outrage from the families of shooting victims.

However, amid increased pressure to hand in her resignation, a spokesman for Greene told CBS News she had no plans to resign.

Rep Greene did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment.

Gun safety activist Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was murdered during the Parkland shooting in 2018 told MSNBC on Thursday that Rep Greene does not belong in Congress.

Mr Guttenberg said Rep Greene “ran for Congress on a lie", adding: “She has called Parkland a lie, Sandy Hook a lie, Las Vegas a lie, and 9/11 a lie."

Mark Barden and Nicole Hockley, parents of two children who were killed in the Sandy Hook school massacre in Connecticut in 2012, echoed similar sentiments in regard to Rep Greene’s positions in Congress.

“Having a Sandy Hook and Parkland denier on the House Education and Labour Committee is an attack on any and every family whose loved ones were murdered in mass shootings that have now become fodder for hoaxers,” they said, CNN’s Jake Tapper reported.

The couple noted that they were grateful to lawmakers who recognise that “hateful conspiracy theories and suggestions that our children’s violent deaths never happened have no place in our society, much less the United States Congress.”

Mr Hogg, who has been a vocal gun control activist since he survived the 2018 massacre, has been urging his followers to sign a petition calling for Rep Greene’s resignation.

The 20-year-old has said he “absolutely” felt threatened by Rep Greene during their interaction in the YouTube video, during which she called him a “coward” and told him she was carrying a gun.

Rep Greene told CNN that the video was taken while she was in Washington, "going from office to office in the Senate to oppose the radical gun-control agenda that Mr Hogg was pushing".

Mr Hogg said in an interview with the broadcaster on Thursday that the controversial representative “would rather choose to protect guns than children”.

Mr Guttenberg urged Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to take action against Rep Greene and remove her from Congress.

"Kevin McCarthy, when you're done having drinks and cake with the bully in Palm Beach, you need to come back and you need to remove her. She has no place in Congress,” he told MSNBC.

A spokesperson for Mr McCarthy, told Axios in a statement on Wednesday that “leader McCarthy plans to have a conversation” with Rep Greene about the “deeply disturbing” comments.

Rep Greene’s past social media interactions also allegedly included indications of support in 2018 and 2019 toward the idea of executing prominent Democrats.

In response to the surfaced posts, Rep Greene has suggested that other people had access to her social media accounts.

“Over the years, I’ve had teams of people manage my pages. Many posts have been liked. Many posts have been shared. Some did not represent my views,” she said in a statement.

California congressman Jimmy Gomez moved on Wednesday to expel the hard-right representative from Congress over the posts.

“Such advocacy for extremism and sedition not only demands her immediate expulsion from Congress, but it also merits strong and clear condemnation from all of her Republican colleagues,” he said.

Rep Greene said in a statement on Twitter that “they are coming after me because I'm a threat to their goal of Socialism. They are coming after me because they know I represent the people, not the politicians.

“They are coming after me because like President Trump, I will always defend conservative values. They want to take me out because I represent the people. And they absolutely hate it.”

House GOP Whip Steve Scalise told CNN, “I've consistently condemned the use of violent rhetoric in politics on both sides, and this is no exception. There is no place for comments like that in our political discourse."

Expelling Rep Greene would require a two-thirds vote of Congress. Democrats hold only a 10-seat advantage in the House.