A US Republican lawmaker whose social media posts have provoked outrage will not be stripped of her committee posts by the party leadership.
House of Representatives Republican leader Kevin McCarthy disavowed Marjorie Taylor Greene’s remarks but noted they came before she was elected.
Democrats, who control the chamber, said they would vote to expel Mrs Greene from her committees on Thursday.
Republicans are now seeking to oust a Democratic lawmaker from committees.
What did Kevin McCarthy say?
Mr McCarthy, a California representative, said Mrs Greene’s comments had caused “deep wounds to many”.
“Past comments from and endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene on school shootings, political violence and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
“I condemn those comments unequivocally. I condemned them in the past and continue to condemn them today.”
He added: “I made this clear to Marjorie when we met [on Tuesday]. I also made clear that as a member of Congress we have a responsibility to hold ourselves to a higher standard than how she presented herself as a private citizen.”
But Mr. McCarthy accused Democrats of a double standard and of failing to hold their own lawmakers to account.
The Republican Party has previously stripped one of its lawmakers of committee assignments. In January 2019, Steve King of Iowa was expelled from three panels after he questioned why white supremacy is considered offensive.
How has Marjorie Taylor Greene responded?
According to the Hill, a political outlet, Mrs. Greene received a standing ovation at a closed-door meeting with members of her party on Wednesday after she apologized for her past remarks.
She reportedly told fellow Republicans that she had erred in being curious about QAnon, a bizarre conspiracy theory that former President Donald Trump was waging a clandestine war on a cabal of child-abusers.
She also told her children that she had learned a lesson about sharing posts on social media, two sources in the room told the Hill.
Mrs Greene meanwhile said on Twitter on Wednesday that she had raised $160,000 over just the last two days for her political campaigning, adding: “Let’s keep sending the message to the Democrat mob.”