Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene has expressed regret for past incendiary comments and support for conspiracy theories.
She was speaking ahead of a US House vote on whether to punish her for those statements.
"I was allowed to believe things that weren't true," she said. "And that is absolutely what I regret."
But Mrs Greene stopped short of an apology, and cast blame on the media.
"The media is just as guilty as QAnon for promoting lies," the 46-year-old said.
The QAnon conspiracy theory claims that former President Donald Trump was waging a clandestine war on a Satan-worshipping cabal of child-abusers and cannibals.
Before taking office, the Georgia Republican liked posts calling for violence against Democratic lawmakers, claimed that school shootings and the 9/11 terror attack were staged events, and suggested Muslims should not serve in government, among other comments online.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy condemned the remarks on Wednesday, but refused to punish Ms Greene, saying the remarks were made before she was elected.
Top Democrat Nancy Pelosi said she was "profoundly concerned" by Republicans' "acceptance of an extreme conspiracy theorist".
Mrs Pelosi's party has moved to expel Mrs Greene from two House committees.
How did Greene defend her comments?
On Thursday, Mrs Greene sought to distance herself from some of these past remarks, saying they were made before she ran for office.
- She said she had "stopped believing" in QAnon sometime in 2018 after finding "misinformation, lies and things that weren't true" in the group's post
- She walked back comments suggesting that school shootings - such as the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school and the 2018 Parkland shooting - were staged. "School shootings are absolutely real," Mrs Greene said on Thursday
- She retracted a past claim suggesting that the 9/11 terror attack may not have occurred. "I want to tell you 9/11 absolutely happened," she said. "I do not believe that it's fake."
"These were words of the past. These things do not represent me," she said.
Mrs Greene said she had been "upset about things" happening in the US and did not trust the government when she came upon conspiracy theories online in 2018.
But she did not address a series of past remarks widely regarded as racist and inflammatory.
- In 2019, she claimed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was "guilty of treason" and referred to it as "a crime punishable by death"
- That same year, she heckled a teenage survivor of the Parkland school shooting and called him "a coward"
- She said the 2018 midterm elections ushered in "an Islamic invasion of our government" and suggested Muslims did not belong in the US government
The Republican also did not address her continued promotion of baseless claims that former President Trump was the real winner of the 2020 election.
What is the House voting on?
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber would proceed with a vote on Thursday to remove Mrs Greene from the education and budget committees.
The measure requires a simple majority to pass.
Committees assignments are typically the job of party leaders and are a vital channel for lawmakers to advance legislation. There's also the symbolic value: veteran lawmakers may be rewarded with a position on the more prestigious committees.
Republicans condemned her past comments but warned that Democrats were setting a dangerous precedent by sanctioning a lawmaker for things said and done before she entered Congress.
Marjorie Taylor Greene has spoken. It won't be enough for Democrats
Marjorie Taylor Greene took to the House floor on Thursday and expressed regret for her past comments and social media "likes" supporting conspiracy theories linked to QAnon.
"These are words of the past, and these things do not represent me," she said.
A week ago - even a few days ago - that might have been enough to avoid the drama unfolding on the floor of the House today.
For Democrats, poised to take the unprecedented move of voting to strip her of her committee assignments, it is too little, too late.
What's more, Mrs Greene's "apology" contained a healthy dose of attacks on the mainstream media and liberal policies. While she spoke of her misguided views in 2018, she made no mention of remarks during the 2020 campaign. And although she distanced herself from past controversial comments about school shootings and the 9/11 attacks, she made no mention of her expressions of support for violence against Democratic politicians - a particularly sensitive subject for lawmakers still reeling from the attack on the US Capitol last month.
The Democrats, in responding to Mrs Greene's floor speech, said they would accept nothing less than a complete renunciation and apology. They did not get it.
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