Greene vs conservatives: Georgia Republican on an island

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)’s lone effort to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) from power makes her a firebrand in Georgia during her time on Capitol Hill. It represents a major trend that has continued. She joined the MAGA movement in Congress, but she has alienated many of her conservative allies along the way.

Many hardliners in the party are furious at Johnson’s willingness to compromise with Democrats on major legislation and have vowed not to let him return to the party’s leadership next year.

But if Mr. Greene’s earlier Hail Mary efforts to remove him highlighted deep divisions within the Republican Party, Mr. Greene’s struggle to win Republican support has left Mr. Johnson It revealed such divisions in the party’s conservative wing, which even its most vocal critics have refused to support. Mr. Green’s motion to rescind the resolution.

The reasons are many, some political, some personal. But they all reflect the underlying reality that Ms. Greene is increasingly isolated and ostracized even among hard-line populists who share her goal of transforming Washington.

“She’s working pretty much on her own, but one or two other people have expressed support for what she’s doing,” said Rep. Bob Good, chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Rep. (R-Va.) told NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.” ” he answered in an interview. “She guides no one.”

Admittedly, Good is no fan of Green. Virginia Republicans voted to expel former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who maintained close ties to Greene. She also supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the Republican presidential primary against former President Trump, angering some conservatives like Greene, who are eager to see former President Trump return to the White House. As a result, the Georgia Republican is backing Good’s primary challenger, who touts himself as a Trump supporter.

But despite vehemently disagreeing with Mr Johnson’s recent comments in Parliament, his opposition to the current expulsion measures is a sign that he has built his political brand on defiance of his own leadership. reflects broader sentiment among hardliners.

Those conservatives say Greene’s maneuver, with the November election just around the corner, could hurt Republicans’ chances of holding onto the House majority next year and threaten Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York. They claim it will give them more influence than they already have.

“I don’t think this is a good idea six months before an election,” Good said, later adding, “The time to have a House runoff is in November after the election.”

“Let’s focus on expanding our House majority, taking back the Senate, and reelecting President Trump,” he said.

As a result, Greene is backed by only two other conservatives, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who support her resolution. This was a prelude to the subsequent rejection of the resolution in the chamber. later this week with the help of Democratic votes.

It’s unclear when or if Green will follow through on his promise to force a motion to vacate the floor. She and Massey cuddled with Mr Johnson for almost two hours in the Speaker’s office on Monday afternoon, but the only message she gave afterwards was that she had agreed to meet again on Tuesday morning.

“I’ve been patient, hardworking, steady, and focused on the facts. And nothing has changed about that,” she told a crowd of reporters. “So I just had a long discussion in the Speaker’s office about how to move forward with a Republican-dominated House. Based on today’s discussion, I plan to speak with him again tomorrow.”

Mr. Johnson offered a similarly vague explanation.

“We’ve talked about some ideas and we’re going to meet again tomorrow. I just want to say, and I’ve told them and I’ve said it many times, that frustration I understand,” he said. “Share.”

In the eyes of her supporters, Greene is simply acting more courageously than her conservative critics, calling out Republican leaders at a time when they don’t fight hard enough for the party’s priorities. It is the only voice that imposes a mission. Massey, for example, described himself as the “most serious” member of Congress.

“She handled this issue in a very reasonable way,” Massey said last week. “She has given the Speaker multiple chances to resign or leave, but instead she clings to the Democratic Party and clings to power.”

But the bad blood between Ms. Greene and other conservative agitators in the Republican conference has far deeper roots than the current debate over Mr. Johnson’s fate.

Ms. Greene’s relationship with the right wing of the Republican conference began to fray at the end of the last Congress. At the time, the Georgia Republican emerged as one of McCarthy’s top supporters as he sought to become speaker of the House. It was a stark departure from her mob-mongering style, which put her in direct conflict with hardline conservatives who withheld her support from Republican leaders.

Those tensions reached a breaking point in July when the Freedom Caucus voted to expel Ms. Greene from the group, with members questioning her cozy relationship with leadership and Congresswoman Lauren Boebert’s ( He cited disputes with other conservative lawmakers, including the Republican (R-Colorado). In one memorable episode, Greene called Boebert a “slut” on the House floor.

Since then, the Georgia Republican has lashed out at his conservative colleagues, denouncing the very group he once championed as a “burn caucus” and saying that even hard-line Republicans aren’t conservative enough. It was criticized that it was not.

The dispute frequently spilled over into the public eye, garnering attention-grabbing headlines and securing Greene’s reputation as a self-paced lawmaker whose tendency to agitate goes beyond party lines.

For example, Greene famously fought with Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) over who was more instrumental in pushing for President Biden’s impeachment. She criticized Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a prominent member of the Freedom Caucus known for his goatee, for mockingly calling Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) “Colonel Sanders.” pursued the lawmaker after he opposed her efforts to do so. And most recently, she called Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) “disapproving” for not supporting an earlier version of the impeachment resolution against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. (Mr. Issa ultimately voted in favor of impeachment on the floor.)

Mr. Green is poised to accelerate his internal offensive as he begins efforts to oust him. The lawmaker has already criticized the Republicans who plan to oppose her move as Republicans supporting the Democratic House speaker, and the move will deepen already deep divisions within the right wing of the Republican conference.

“If this vote fails, and the entire conference, the entire Congress, supports the United Party, let me tell you this: It’s not a failure, it’s a victory for the American people, because it’s a list of names,” Greene said. said. “They deserve that list.”