California Democrat Gomez says committee removal not enough, Greene must be expelled from Congress

California Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez says taking away GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene's committee assignments for past, incendiary comments and actions is only a "first step" and that she should be expelled from Congress.

"If you look at her behavior and comments – in the context of what had been going on in the country before Nov. 3, then after the elections, and finally during and after the insurrection that occurred on Jan. 6 – removing her from the committees is not enough," Gomez argued in a op-ed published Friday on NBC.com.

"It's a great first step, because somebody who peddles in lies and conspiracy theories should not have a platform to try to influence the education policy of the United States. But it's not enough," he also wrote.

On Thursday evening, the Democrat-controlled House voted to remove Greene, a first-term Georgia lawmaker, from the Budget and the House Education and Labor committees. The vote followed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy declining to remove Greene from the committees and failing to reach a compromise with House Democrat leadership to put her on the lower-profile Small Business Committee.

Gomez also argued in his opinion essay that also censuring Greene is still not enough. 

"There will be a motion to censure her – and I will likely support that when it comes to a vote," he wrote. "I also think that isn't responsive enough to the gravity of her actions. Members have been censured for using unparliamentary language, for the improper use of campaign funds, for filing incorrect financial disclosure statements – stuff like that. What she has done goes far beyond that."