Fox News anchor Sandra Smith on Wednesday refused to let Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) off the hook for repeatedly dodging questions about whether she supports stripping QAnon congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments or the conservative push to remove Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) from party leadership.
Ahead of Wednesday’s House GOP caucus meeting to decide whether they want to punish Cheney for her pro-impeachment vote and discipline Greene over her conspiratorial and violent rhetoric, a growing number of Republicans have tried to distance themselves from the conspiratorial freshman congresswoman while standing up for Cheney.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, for instance, called out Greene’s “loony lies and conspiracy theories,” branding her a “cancer for the Republican Party.” The Wall Street Journal editorial board, meanwhile, said, “If the House GOP punishes Ms. Cheney while saying nothing about Ms. Greene, it will deserve a longer time in the wilderness.”
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Asked by anchor John Roberts to weigh in on how the Greene ordeal impacts her party, Blackburn deflected, claiming she will “leave the actions of the day to the House leadership.” Pressed on how she felt about Cheney, the senator dodged again, repeating the line: “I’m going to leave all of these issues of the day to the House leadership.”
At this point, Smith jumped in to note that Republican strategist Karl Rove recently said Greene is a “problem for the party” that Republicans must deal with immediately. “I’m going to leave all of this about the House to the House,” the Republican senator once again replied.
“You don’t have a stand either way?” Smith shot back.
“You know, Sandra, I’m gonna let them deal with the issues in front of them today. We’re gonna leave all of this to the House leadership,” Blackburn repeated—yet again.
Smith, visibly frustrated, finally fired back, “You are a sitting U.S. senator. You should probably have a thought on it.”
Undeterred, Blackburn stuck to her talking point, saying for the umpteenth time, “I’m going to leave all of this to the House.”
