House to vote on removing rightwing extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees – live

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy has been telling allies that he plans to defend Liz Cheney during this afternoon’s meeting, according to Politico.

Some Republicans have called on Cheney to step down as House Republican conference chairwoman over her vote to impeach Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection.

Matt Gaetz, a Florida congressman who has been one of Donald Trump’s fiercest advocates in the House, suggested he would give up his seat to defend the former president in the impeachment trial.

Gaetz made the comment in an interview today with Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist.

“I love my district,” Gaetz told Bannon. “I love representing them. But I view this cancellation of the Trump presidency and the Trump movement as one of the major risks to my people, both in my district and all throughout this great country.”

Gaetz added, “Absolutely, if the president called me and wanted me to go defend him on the floor of the Senate, that would be the top priority in my life. I would leave my House seat, I would leave my home, I would do anything I had to do to ensure that the greatest president in my lifetime … got a full-throated defense.”

The House approved an article of impeachment against Trump last month, charging the then-president of incitement of insurrection in connection to the 6 January attack on the Capitol.

Ten House Republicans supported the article of impeachment, making it the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in US history.

More Senate Republicans are coming out to denounce the racist, antisemitic and violent rhetoric of congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Thom Tillis, a Republican of North Carolina, said in a new tweet, “It’s beyond reprehensible for any elected official, especially a member of Congress, to parrot violent QAnon rhetoric and promote deranged conspiracies like the Pentagon wasn’t really hit by a plane on 9/11. It’s not conservative, it’s insane.”

Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota also said this afternoon that it would be “very hard” for him to support Greene staying on the House education committee, given that she has suggested school shootings were hoaxes. (Those suggestions, of course, have absolutely no basis in reality.)

The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, has refused to remove Greene from her committee assignments, so the Democratic leadership is moving forward with a full chamber vote to do so.

Jim McGovern, the Democratic chairman of the House rules committee, said he believed removing Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments was “the minimum” that the House should do.

“I personally think she should resign,” McGovern said. “I don’t think she’s fit to serve in this institution.”

Other Democrats have also called on Greene to resign, but she has refused to do so, instead sending fundraising pitches linked to the outcry over her racist and anti-Semitic beliefs.

Congressman Ted Deutch, a Democratic member of the House rules committee, got choked up as he discussed the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school during today’s hearing.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has suggested the shooting was a hoax. That is of course not true. The shooting was real, and 17 people were killed in the attack.

The shooting took place in Deutch’s district, and the congressman started his comments by reading off the names of the Parkland victims.

“There are not words in the English language to properly describe how the remarks of Ms Greene makes these communities feel,” Deutch said. “This makes it so much worse.”

Tom Cole, the top Republican on the House rules committee, said he considered today’s hearing to be “premature”.

Cole described Marjorie Taylor Green’s racist, antisemitic and violent comments as “deeply offensive,” but he suggested the matter should be referred to the House ethics committee before she is removed from her committee assignments.

The House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, has already said the full House will vote on removing Greene from her committee assignments tomorrow.

The Biden administration has said it cannot release the visitor logs from the Trump White House.

“We cannot [release them],” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said this afternoon. “That is under the purview of the National Archives, so I’d certainly point you to there.”

Reporters have asked the new administration about the visitor logs amid questions over whether Donald Trump hosted anyone who participated in the January 6 insurrection in the days leading up to the attack on the Capitol.

The Biden White House has pledged to release its own visitor logs every quarter, as Barack Obama’s administration did.

Leyland Cecco reports for the Guardian from Toronto:

Canada has designated the far-right Proud Boys group as a terrorist organization alongside Isis and al-Qaida, amid growing concerns over the spread of white supremacist groups in the country.

On Wednesday Bill Blair, public safety minister, also announced the federal government would designate the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups the Atomwaffen Division, the Base and the Russian Imperial Movement as terrorist entities. The federal government also added offshoots of al-Qaida, Isis and Hizbul Mujahedin to its list.

“Canada will not tolerate ideological, religious or politically motivated acts of violence,” Blair said.

The move by the federal government follows allegations that the Proud Boys played a role in the mob attack on the US Capitol in January. During the 2020 presidential debates, when Donald Trump was asked to condemn white supremacist groups, he instead told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by”.

In late January, Canada’s parliament unanimously passed a motion calling on the federal government to designate the rightwing Proud Boys as a terrorist group. The motion had no practical legal impact, but spoke to a growing worry over rightwing extremism in Canada.

Ahead of the announcement, Canadian officials told reporters that they had been monitoring the Proud Boys before the Capitol Hill attack, but the event helped with the decision to list the organization.