Marjorie Taylor Greene finally apologises but only after attacking AOC and blaming media for hate she spread

Far-right congresswoman says lawmakers 'stripped my voters of having representation' but called committees 'a waste of time'

Marjorie Taylor Greene assailed the news media and a "tyrannically controlled government" run by Democrats during a press conference the morning after she was removed from her committee assignments in the House of Representatives, which debated whether to oust her for a history of antisemitic and racist remarks and support for violent conspiracy theories.

After railing against gun control, abortion and immigration during her 15-minute speech on Friday, a reporter asked whether she would publicly apologise for her past remarks. She responded that she is "sorry for saying all those things that are wrong and offensive" but did not disclose what she believes that is. When pressed to respond to her apparent support for the deaths of prominent Democrats in Facebook comments, she ended the press conference.

In her remarks, she accused Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of faking her "outrage with another hoax" following the Capitol attack and said the news media is "doing a good job of addicting our nation to hate."

The Republican congresswoman from Georgia said right-wing media is also responsible for teaching people to hate Ms Ocasio-Cortez as well as Ilhan Omar and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Ms Greene has endorsed the killings of the House Speaker in past Facebook posts, and she has repeatedly attacked the congresswomen, including a social media post that placed images of Ms Ocasio-Cortez, Ms Omar and Rashida Tlaib next to a photo of her holding a rifle with the words “squad’s worst nightmare.”

She also has repeated anti-Muslim conspiracy theories directed at the two Muslim members of Congress, including calling their elections an “Islamic invasion” that will impose Sharia law in the US, and challenged the legitimacy of their elections because they did not swear into office on a Bible.

Ms Greene said her removal from the House education and budget committees “stripped my district of their voice.”

“They stripped my voters of having representation to work for them for the budget,” she said.

Later, she said that serving on the committees would be a “waste of my time.”

She accused Democratic lawmakers who want stricter gun control measures of wanting to "leave our children defenseless" while members of Congress are protected by armed National Guard service members.

"These are the policies that disgust me. These are the policies that disgust the American people," she said.She defended former president Donald Trump and said that "the party is his – it doesn't belong to anyone else."

The House voted 230-199 on Thursday night to remove Ms Greene from her committee assignments. Eleven Republicans broke from the party to vote with Democrats.

“This is about whether or not we will continue to be a peaceful and functioning democracy,” Ms Omar said on the House floor on Thursday.

Republicans repeatedly threatened that her removal sets a precedent they are more than willing to follow, drawing false equivalences to Ms Greene’s unapologetic bigotry to statements from Democratic members of Congress, none of whom endorsed violence against their colleagues.

“You'll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think,” minority leader Kevin McCarthy said, adding that the GOP has a “long list” of Democratic targets.

In her 10-minute speech to the House on Thursday, Ms Greene did not apologise for her bigoted remarks and equivocated when discussing her history, blaming instead news media and “cancel culture” for the backlash she received after her election in 2020. On Wednesday, she reportedly apologised to a group of Republicans during a close-door conference of GOP lawmakers, who gave her a standing ovation.

Following right-wing outrage over investigations into the former president and Russia, she said that she fell into a QAnon rabbit hole on social media and “was allowed to believe things that weren’t true and I would ask questions about them and talk about them, and that is absolutely what I regret”.

On Friday morning. she called Democrats and the 11 GOP House members who voted for her removal "morons" for "giving some one like me free time."

"In this Democrat tyrannical government, Conservative Republicans have no say on committees anyway. Oh this is going to be fun!" she said.

Several Democratic lawmakers have supported legislation for her removal from Congress.