I live in Adam Schiff's district. It's a short walk to Jimmy Gomez's district next door. I got to know him a little when he was still a state legislator running for Congress. Blue America endorsed him and we raised him some dough and helped defend him against a more conservative Democrat running against him. He won and he joined the Progressive Caucus, as promised, and has had an excellent voting record, also as promised. In fact, leaving out the freshmen, he has the 9th best voting record in Congress (according to ProgressivePunch)-- marginally more progressive Pramila, Raul Grijalva, Chuy Garcia, AOC, Ro Khanna, Barbara Lee, Rashida, Ilhan...
And yet, he was still a little bit of a disappointment. He hasn't been a leader or a firebrand or a community organizer; just an excellent voter. Good enough. He got primaried from the left and his opponent, David Kim, gave him a good scare. David came in second in the primary and did better than any other progressive challenger in California in the general election. The final score:
Gomez- 108,792 (53%)
Kim- 96,554 (47%)
That's when Jimmy's progressive score started rising sharply. And then yesterday, he finally did something to endear him to his district's big progressive base. A member of the House Oversight Committee, he decided to draft an expulsion resolution for Georgia QAnon crackpot Marjorie Taylor Greene. This is the press release his office sent out:
In light of numerous reports revealing her repeated endorsements of sedition, domestic terrorism, and political violence, Congressman Jimmy Gomez (CA-34) announced today he will introduce a resolution to expel Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14) from the U.S. House of Representatives.
“As if it weren’t enough to amplify conspiracy theories that the September 11 attacks were an inside job and the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was staged, a string of recent media reports has now confirmed that Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had previously supported social media posts calling for political violence against the Speaker of the House, members of Congress, and former President Barack Obama,” said Congressman Gomez. “Such advocacy for extremism and sedition not only demands her immediate expulsion from Congress, but it also merits strong and clear condemnation from all of her Republican colleagues, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Her very presence in office represents a direct threat against the elected officials and staff who serve our government, and it is with their safety in mind, as well as the security of institutions and public servants across our country, that I call on my House colleagues to support my resolution to immediately remove Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from this legislative body.”
On January 26, 2021, a CNN KFile review by Em Steck and Andrew Kaczynski uncovered social media activity and posts by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene calling for violence against Democrats in elected office.
In one Facebook post from 2018, Congresswoman Greene replied to a supporter who asked how they can “hang” former President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying the “stage” was being “set” and that it would need to be done “perfectly.”
Congresswoman Greene also liked a comment from 2019 that a “bullet to the head would be quicker” than an election for removing Speaker Pelosi from office, and messages about executing FBI agents working for the “deep state.”
In September of 2020, Congresswoman Greene posted a meme of her with a gun pointed towards progressive members of Congress. And in June of 2020, Politico unearthed past clips of Congresswoman Greene espousing racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic attitudes, saying in one video that Muslims should be barred from serving in government.
This is the meme Gomez was referring to:
I asked half a dozen members of Congress. None of them thinks any more highly of Taylor Greene than Gomez does-- and all of them think highly of him. They all said pretty much the same thing when I asked if his expulsion resolution could pass. Basically: Not.A.Chance. But they all agreed that if she shot a member of Congress she would be expelled. A couple of them also said that if investigations currently being conducted prove that she materially helped the insurrectionists when they sacked the Capitol, she could also be expelled. And no one expected that. What they did expect is that she would use Gomez's resolution to raise a great deal of money, maybe millions and got tons of sympathetic coverage from Fox, Hate Talk Radio, Newsmax and that other Trump's channel, OAN or AON or something like that. It could help her clinch the nomination to take on Raphael Warnock in the Georgia Senate race in 2022.