Greene, Gosar back on committees, Greta Thunberg detained: 5 Things podcast

On today’s episode of the 5 Things podcast: Greene, Gosar reinstated to committees by GOP-led House after Democrats removed them

USA TODAY Politics Reporter Rachel Looker explains whether GOP reinstatements to committee might be part of concessions House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made to get votes for the speakership. Plus, Arizona Republic Money Reporter Russ Wiles looks at other economic concerns beyond recession, a group of Republican lawmakers in Wyoming want to phase out the sale of electric vehicles, climate change activist Greta Thunberg was detained while protesting, and Stephen A. Smith stops by USA TODAY Sports as his new book hits shelves.

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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I’m Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Wednesday, the 18th of January 2023. Today a pair of Republicans are back on House committees after Democrats remove them. Plus financial dangers that might be more of a concern than recession, and hear which state wants to ban electric cars.

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GOP representatives Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene were stripped of committee assignments two years ago by the Democratic led House after menacing social media posts, but they were both reinstated to committee this week by the Republicans who now run the chamber. For more, I’m now joined by USA TODAY Politics Reporter Rachel Looker. Rachel, thanks for coming on the show.

Rachel Looker:

Yes, thank you for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Rachel, I want to start with Marjorie Taylor Greene. Why was she removed in the first place and why is she getting back on now?

Rachel Looker:

So Marjorie Taylor Greene was stripped of her committee assignments after she posted some controversial social media posts that depicted her holding an assault weapon, standing next to Representatives Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and Tlaib, or better known as members of the Squad. So when this happened, Democrats that led the House removed her from her committee assignments, and at the time McCarthy called this a dangerous new standard. And he said that removing her from these committee assignments over these controversial posts would deepen division within the House. Republicans appointed Greene on Tuesday to the Homeland Security Committee and the Oversight Committee, which was a pretty significant feather in her cap to be appointed to Oversight.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. How about Paul Gosar? What’s his story in all of this?

Rachel Looker:

So Representative Gosar, similar to Greene, he faced criticism after he posted a controversial video on his social media. This was an anime style video that showed him killing Representative Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Biden. So at the time, Democrats in the House voted to censure him, which stripped him of his committee assignments. And again, similar to Greene, at the time, McCarthy called the censure vote an abuse of power. On Tuesday, Gosar was appointed to the Committee on Natural Resources, and it is important to note both Greene and Gosar could still be added to other committees as House leadership releases more assignments throughout the week.

Taylor Wilson:

Rachel, we obviously saw tons of drama on Capitol Hill earlier this month with the 15 round vote for speaker, for now House speaker Kevin McCarthy, and we heard a lot about concessions that he would have to make for a lot of those votes. Are these committee reinstatements part of those concessions, Rachel?

Rachel Looker:

So it’s a bit of a tricky answer. These moves were not exactly part of McCarthy’s concessions. McCarthy has said before in the lead up to the elections and the lead up to him becoming speaker that he would reinstate Greene and Gosar to committees if he won that top leadership position. However, it is likely given the many rounds of voting and ballots it took to elect Kevin McCarthy that if Greene may not have been promised a committee, she may not have voted for him in that speaker election. In Gosar’s case and the first few rounds of the speaker vote, he did not vote for McCarthy and he opted to vote for other candidates. So it is possible that he may have been promised certain committee assignments for backing McCarthy for the speakership vote, but it is not 100% clear exactly if those concessions are tied to this and exactly what those concessions were.

Taylor Wilson:

All right. Rachel Looker covers politics for USA TODAY. Rachel, thanks so much.

Rachel Looker:

Thank you.

♦Taylor Wilson:

Spiking inflation was the story of 2022, while recession risk could emerge as the dominant economic theme for 2023. But is it really that big of a deal? Maybe not, at least in today’s environment. Producer PJ Elliott spoke with Arizona Republic Money Reporter Russ Wiles to find out more.

PJ Elliott:

Russ, welcome to 5 Things.

Russ Wiles:

Happy to be here.

PJ Elliott:

So we’ve heard a lot about a recession possibly coming in 2023. It’s everywhere, but you write about other financial dangers that may be more of a concern than a recession. Can you go into what they are?

Russ Wiles:

Yeah, and I just wanted to give some fresh perspective on the whole recession thing. We’ve been hearing about recession risk for really about a year now, and we haven’t gone into one. And in fact, the economy perked up in the latest quarter, 3.2% growth. So to me that kind of indicates this fear might be a little bit overblown. But at the same time I wanted to, there’s been a lot of conjecture, a lot of academic and other writings about recession and where we might be headed. And some of these other areas I think provide some interesting perspective.