Marjorie Taylor Greene creates headaches for House GOP as leaders weigh how much attention to give the Trump loyalist
CNN
GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was a team player and a reliable Republican leadership ally for nine months under former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, willing to swallow tough votes and fall in line even when it meant defying her right-wing colleagues.
GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was a team player and a reliable Republican leadership ally for nine months under former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, willing to swallow tough votes and fall in line even when it meant defying her right-wing colleagues. All of that has changed. Now, under Speaker Mike Johnson, Greene is increasingly acting out, from outbursts at committee hearings to unsuccessfully trying to oust Johnson from the speakership to pressuring House Republican leaders to take uncomfortable votes. Those actions have made the Georgia Republican — who was kicked out of the far-right House Freedom Caucus last year after feuding with members — persona non grata inside the House GOP Conference, where there is little patience for her tactics and where some Republicans have even been calling for Greene to face repercussions. In the last two weeks alone, in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush money case, Greene has pressured Johnson to put on the floor a long-shot impeachment resolution against President Joe Biden and has called on the speaker to shut down the government this fall rather than continue to fund the Department of Justice — two ideas that more centrist Republicans are against. “This is supposed to be a collaborative body, at least within your own conference, and she doesn’t play nice in the sandbox,” GOP Rep. Carlos Giménez of Florida told CNN. But Greene is largely embracing her lone-wolf status and feels increasingly emboldened because of the backing she still has from MAGA supporters across the country – including from Trump, who recently endorsed her for reelection and tapped her to warm up the crowd during his rally in Las Vegas over the weekend.
Senate Democrats have confirmed some of President Joe Biden’s picks for the federal bench this week in the face of President-elect Donald Trump’s calls for a total GOP blockade of judicial nominations – in part because several Republicans involved with the Trump transition process have been missing votes.
Donald Trump is considering a right-wing media personality and people who have served on his US Secret Service detail to run the agency that has been plagued by its failure to preempt two alleged assassination attempts on Trump this summer, sources familiar with the president-elect’s thinking tell CNN.