- McCarthy said MTG and Gosar will still get committee assignments if Republicans retake the majority.
- That comes after the duo recently appeared at a white nationalist conference, which McCarthy condemned.
- The GOP House leader also said he's spoken with MTG and she won't attend the conference again.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reaffirmed on Wednesday that GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona — both of whom recently spoke at a white nationalist conference in Florida — would still be allowed to sit on House committees if Republicans retake the majority.
McCarthy previously made the pledge in November, musing at the time that the pair may be given "better committee assignments" than they previously had.
All House Democrats and two Republicans voted to remove Gosar from two committees in November after his office released an anime video depicting him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Eleven House Republicans joined all Democrats to strip Greene of her committee assignments at the beginning of last year due to her history of incendiary remarks.
After Greene made a surprise appearance at the February conference and Gosar spoke via a video address, McCarthy condemned their association with the conference as "unacceptable" while calling the gathering "appalling and wrong." He also said he would address the issue with both of them.
Greene defended her involvement, saying she didn't know it was a white supremacist conference and wanted to speak to "young conservatives who feel cast aside and marginalized by society."
On Wednesday, when asked by reporters about the meetings, McCarthy said he'd had a meeting with Greene but not Gosar, and that the congresswoman agreed not to attend events held by the group in the future. But he declined to outline any repercussions for their attendance, stating "my conversations with my members are exactly that."
This marks a reversal from just three years ago, when McCarthy removed former Rep. Steve King of Iowa from his committee assignments after he made comments sympathetic to white supremacists. King later lost his primary election to current Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra of Iowa.
Asked by Insider if he stood by his pledge to return Greene and Gosar to committees in light of how he dealt with King, McCarthy doubled down.
"They have the ability to be able to get committees based upon that time when it comes," said McCarthy.
—Acyn (@Acyn) March 9, 2022