As Republicans and Democrats loudly booed her on Wednesday as she called an early vote in the House of Representatives to remove Speaker Mike Johnson, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, paused to tell viewers at home about the drama.
“This is the college party for the American people watching,” Ms. Greene sneered, looking over her glasses at her colleagues like a disappointed teacher.
Ms. Greene then shot at Mr. Johnson and missed, a result she knew was certain. The majority of Democrats, seeking to scuttle their attempt to unseat him, voted an overwhelming 359 to 43 – with all but 39 Democrats joining Republicans to block it and save the GOP speaker.
The move gave Mr. Johnson a boost and confirmed his status as the leader of an unlikely bipartisan governing coalition in the House that sees Ms. Greene as the ultimate enemy. And it isolated Ms. Greene on Capitol Hill and returned her to where she was when she arrived in Washington three years ago: a provocateur and object of ridicule who seems to enjoy giving her colleagues major headaches.
“Hopefully this is the end of the personality politics and frivolous character assassination that have characterized the 118th Congress,” Johnson said after the vote.
The word “hopefully” made a big difference.
If Ms. Greene’s goal in Congress were to chair a powerful committee or to build political capital to advance major policy initiatives, all of this would pose a major problem for her. But those were never the incentives that drove the gentle lady from Georgia, whose career in Congress has been defined more by exciting her base and stoking the ire of the right than legislative successes or political pragmatism.
In her view, she got something even better this week when she insisted on the vote: proof that Mr. Johnson betrayed the Republican base and allowed himself to be co-opted by Democrats as he worked with them to pass a series of major bills say goodbye. including one to send aid to Ukraine – and that many in her own party were involved in the deal.
“I’m excited about the whole thing,” Ms. Greene said in an interview Thursday, sounding upbeat after her spectacular defeat. “Even the boos from both sides – I fully expected that. My district is thrilled.”
On Wednesday night, centrist-leaning Republicans tried to distance themselves from her as much as possible, fearing that association with her histrionics would alienate voters in their districts who were put off by the seemingly endless chaos in the House.
“All she wants is attention,” said Rep. Carlos Gimenez, Republican of Florida. “Today we turned it off. Our entire conference was like, ‘Enough is enough – we don’t need to hear from her anymore.'”
Rep. Mike Lawler, Republican of New York, must have referred to Ms. Greene as “Moscow Marjorie” more than a dozen times in the past week as she threatened to oust the speaker. “The Moscow Marjorie is clearly out of control,” he said on Wednesday.
But if Ms. Greene is on an island with her group now, she hasn’t been there long and there’s probably a lifeboat on the way to take them back to the mainland. After being stripped of her committee assignments and treated like a pariah by Democrats, Ms. Greene has been promoted by her party’s leaders over the past two years, valued as a top aide by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and tapped as a helpful fundraiser by She is among the endangered Republicans and is publicly celebrated as a dream teammate by her party’s centrist MPs.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene, she’s so nice,” Rep. Jen Kiggans, a vulnerable Republican from Virginia, said at a recent event. “She was very nice to me.” Of Ms. Greene and other bomb-throwers in her party, she said: “I can’t say anything bad or, you know, different about any of these people. You’re on my team, right? They are my teammates. We all want the same thing.”
Former President Donald J. Trump has made it clear that she remains on his good side. He waited until the House rejected Ms. Greene’s overthrow attempt on Wednesday night and then posted a message on social media urging Republicans to block him. And before praising Mr Johnson, he wrote: “I absolutely love Marjorie Taylor Greene. She has spirit, she has fight, and I believe she will be on our side for a long time.”
If it looks like she’s being abandoned by her party, who needs a hug?
“He’s not mad at me at all,” Ms. Greene said of the former president on Thursday. “I spoke to him a lot. He’s proud of me.”
Ms. Greene said she spoke with Mr. Trump after he released a statement Wednesday night in which he said Republicans should refrain from firing their speaker, at least for now, in order to win the November election. “He covered everyone,” she said. “I told him the statement was fantastic.”
Democrats, for their part, are unwilling to let Republicans run away from Ms. Greene, the most famous Republican in the House, so quickly.
Missy Cotter Smasal, a Democrat challenging Ms. Kiggans in coastal Virginia, said: “When voters hear her refer to Marjorie Taylor Greene as a teammate, they are astonished and disgusted.”
Although Ms. Kiggans voted to thwart Ms. Greene’s deployment on Wednesday night, the next day Ms. Smasal used it as a cudgel against her Republican opponent, just as Republicans had tried to warn Ms. Greene when they urged her to resign.
“Jen Kiggans in office is enabling the chaos of Marjorie Taylor Greene,” she said. A spokeswoman for Ms. Kiggans did not respond to a request for comment.
Justin Chermol, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said: “If Republicans lose their majority in November, it will be because the so-called moderates make Marjorie Taylor Greene their party mascot.” On Wednesday, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of, sent out a statement New York and Minority Leader, a fundraising email detailing how Ms. Greene “threatened to plunge Congress further into chaos, crisis and confusion.”
Ms. Greene laughed off the idea that her actions would help elect Democrats this fall — the argument that everyone from Mr. Trump to Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, had tried in stopping her , to overthrow the speaker.
“Republicans will turn out in droves for Trump,” she said. Using an acronym for “Republican in Name Only,” she continued, “Then they’ll go down and see the RINO Republican that they voted for over and over again – who didn’t impeach Biden, who didn’t do anything.” the border – they’ll see this guy and insult him under his breath and leave his name out.”
Ms. Greene said Thursday that she didn’t care whether she was in isolation or not.
“When I’m on an island,” she said, “I’m doing exactly what I came here to do.”
“I feel very comfortable going up and down with my party,” she added. “I can be their biggest cheerleader, supporter, advocate and donor. I donated about half a million to the National Republican Campaign Committee. I am a team player. If they have betrayed us, I am fully on the side of the people.”
In 2023, Ms. Greene made the largest possible contribution to more than a dozen at-risk Republican races in the House, including to colleagues representing districts won by President Biden in 2020, such as Reps. David Schweikert of Arizona and Rep. Mike Garcia California.
On Thursday morning, Ms. Greene made it clear that she was not done tormenting Mr. Johnson.
“Speaker Johnson is the uniparty speaker of the House of Representatives!” She cheered on social media.
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2024-05-09 23:24:18
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