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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene attacks critics in first comments after losing committee assignments

Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene declares that she has been "freed" to push the GOP further to the right.

ATLANTA — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), speaking Friday publicly after being stripped of her committee assignments in a House vote the night before, postured herself against what she called the "fake outrage" of her critics and said losing the assignments would free her time to advance conservative causes.

Rep. Greene said it was a "freeing" experience to stand account Thursday on the House floor for her multitude of past incendiary comments and social media posts, ranging from the racist and xenophobic to the violent and conspiratorial. 

RELATED: House votes to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's committee assignments after contentious debate

She apologized in some respects in her floor speech, defending herself in others, and again on Friday said she felt "seriously blessed" because "I got to say I said things wrong, I believed things that were wrong."

But, as on Thursday, contrition was not the focus of her remarks. 

Greene spent the large bulk of the roughly 20-minute news conference in front of Capitol Hill hammering the news media and stoking political grievances. 

To the media, the congresswoman said "you're doing a really good job at addicting our nation to hate, teaching people to hate people like me and President Trump." And she promoted her Christian conservative bona fides on issues such as abortion, immigration, the debt, guns, and foreign aid, positioning herself against "policies that disgust me" advanced by Democrats.

As much apologetic, the congresswoman was defiant.

Back home in northwest Georgia, she said, "my district is thrilled with me."

While losing her committee assignments effectively sidelines her as a lawmaker, she promised to "vote very conservative" and said her efforts as a congresswoman would be focused on "holding the Republican Party accountable and pushing them to the right."

"I'm fine with being kicked off my committees because it'd be a waste of my time," she said.

The resolution to strip Greene of her committee assignments was a response by Democrats to Greene's false and inflammatory statements and interactions on social media and in video clips on a range of topics - from calling school shootings "false flags," or in other words staged events, to spreading misinformation for months about the 2020 election. 

CNN has reported she supported social media posts in 2018 and 2019 calling for violence against prominent Democrats, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former President Barack Obama. She reportedly deleted videos she had posted on Facebook Live where she said Pelosi was "guilty of treason" and that she will "suffer death or she'll be in prison" for her "treason."

11Alive has reached out to Greene several times about the posts and videos but her office has not directly answered questions about them. Instead, they have sent general statements about Greene, her political positions, and the "fake news media."

Greene's floor speech continued the theme, singling out the media as the "bad guy." 

"Big media companies can take teeny, tiny pieces of words that I've said, that you have said -- any of us -- and can portray us as someone that we're not. And that is wrong. 'Cancel culture' is a real thing. It is very real," she said. 

After the House finally completed their vote, the final tally went along party lines, with some notable exceptions. The final vote was 230 - 199, with 11 Republicans crossing over to vote with Democrats to block Greene's assignments. 

The entire Georgia House delegation voted upon party lines, with the Democrats voting to remove Greene, and the Republicans voting to retain her committee assignments.

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