Mitch McConnell condemns Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'loony lies,' defends Liz Cheney

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday went to bat for GOP Conference Chair Rep. Liz Cheney while condemning remarks from freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

McConnell issued a statement condemning the extremist views of Greene, whose support for QAnon and other conspiracy theories has drawn scorn from Democrats and some Republicans.

McConnell said the Georgia congresswoman's embrace of conspiracy theories and "loony lies" is a "cancer for the Republican Party."

"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," McConnell said. "This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party."

Democrats are calling for Greene to be censured, removed from her committee or even ousted from Congress as more of her social media activity from before she ran for office have been put in the spotlight. Her activity, including "likes" on posts that called for violence against prominent Democrats and posts that outlined wild conspiracies claiming a space laser may have caused deadly wildfires in California.

The furor intensified after her appointment to the House Education and Labor Committee given the revelation in social media posts that she viewed shooting massacres at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut (2012) and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas in Florida (2018) as staged events designed to help Democrats promote gun control.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, through a spokesman, indicated his displeasure with Greene following the unearthed social media posts.