GOP Leaders Mocked Over White Nationalist Conference Attendees With Silence

At the direction of Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, Republican leadership was mocked with silence from the House floor for failing to take action against GOP lawmakers who recently spoke at a white nationalist conference.

Lieu praised Democratic leadership for working to pass President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan last year during a House speech on Friday. He then turned his attention to Republican leaders, remaining silent after promising to list the ways that Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona were punished for speaking at the white nationalist America First Political Action Conference in Florida.

"What are Republicans doing?" asked Lieu. "I don't know. But I do know that two of them attended a white nationalist conference last month. And let me now tell you all the actions that House Republican leadership took against these two Republican members who attended and spoke at a white nationalist conference last month."

Lieu then stood silent for about 15 seconds before ending his speech with "I yield back."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that he was "appalled" just after the House Republicans spoke late last month at the event organized by Nick Fuentes, whom the Anti-Defamation League has labeled a white supremacist.

McCarthy later spoke with Greene and insisted that she would not attend the conference in the future but has received criticism for failing to take any further actions against her or Gosar.

Last year, the House censured Gosar for sharing a video that was doctored to show him killing a cartoon version of Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

The House also stripped Greene of her committee assignments for social media activity that included apparent endorsements for killing prominent Democrats. McCarthy has promised to reinstate her assignments if Republicans regain control of the chamber.

Other GOP leaders have also condemned Greene and Gosar for their involvement in the conference, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who said there was "no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists or antisemitism."

Greene defended her choice to speak at the conference as an opportunity to converse with a large number of "young patriots," while blasting those who criticized her choice for playing the "guilt by association game."

"I am not going to play the guilt by association game in which you demand every conservative should justify anything ever said by anyone they've ever shared a room with," she said in a statement to Newsweek. "I'm not going to be drawn into that. I'm only responsible for what I say. So ask me about my speech. I talked about God and Liberty."

Newsweek reached out to McCarthy's office for comment.