U.S. Rep. Scott Franklin of Lakeland joined most of his fellow Republicans on Thursday in voting against a measure that stripped controversial Rep, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia from her committee assignments.

Eleven Republicans — three of them from South Florida — joined Democrats in voting to remove Greene from the Budget Committee and the Education and Labor Committee.

The vote came after the emergence of social media posts made by the freshman legislator prior to her 2020 campaign. Among them, she said the Parkland school massacre had been staged, questioned whether a jet hit the Pentagon on 9/11 and expressed support for executing prominent Democrats in Congress.

Franklin released a statement condemning Greene’s positions but calling Democrats’ actions hypocritical. His statement:

“I fully condemn past comments made by my colleague from Georgia. QAnon, racism and violence must be rejected and have no place in America. The comments made by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green prior to her election to Congress were wholly inappropriate. She delivered unequivocal denunciations of her past statements and expressed remorse to her freshman colleagues, the House Republican Conference and the American public on the House floor.

“The proper judge and jury of her actions are the voters of the 14th District of Georgia.

“The precedent set today by House Democrats is not applied equally to Members on their side of the aisle.  This action is a hypocritical attempt to further divide and distract Americans instead of working to address the global pandemic and restore our economy.”

Also, Franklin announced on Thursday he will serve on two subcommittees of the House Armed Services Committee:

  • Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems
  • Special Operations

Franklin is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who served as a Navy aviator for 14 years on active duty and 12 years in the reserves.


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Barry Friedman founded Lkldnow.com in 2015 as the culmination of a career in print and digital journalism. Since 1982, he has used the tools of reporting, editing and content curation to help people in Lakeland understand their community better.

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1 Comment

  1. Rep. Franklin, really your perceptions are of clear denunciation and remorse by a person who openly saw mass school shootings, a plane into the Pentagon as not what they were. You would appear to support having a person who chooses to be strikingly uneducated, on a committee for education. One begins to wonder what your view of truth is if she represents fit to be on significant committees with a so sincere “oops my bad, sorry”

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