Here is a suggestion for Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. If your goal for when you grow up is to be a commentator on Fox News, you can quit Congress at any time to go make that dream a reality. While Greene has not said that is her goal, it is the only explanation for her and her freedom caucus colleagues’ attempts to turn the House of Representatives into a swamp where no bills move without their say.
How else do you explain Greene’s continued push to oust Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson for the sin of bringing three pieces of legislation that had bipartisan support to the House floor for votes? Greene had first brought the motion to fire Johnson after he split a Senate bill that provided aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
The package stalled in the House, and Johnson, who presides over a five-vote majority, did the right thing by breaking them into separate bills where they would pass. But no good deed goes unpunished, and over the weekend Greene took to Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” to declare her displeasure.
“Mike Johnson has betrayed America. He’s betrayed Republican voters. Under his leadership he has passed the Democrats’ agenda, passed Biden administration’s policies, and funded them,” Greene told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. “Mike Johnson’s leadership is over,” she added. “He needs to do the right thing to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled. If he doesn’t so, he will be vacated.”
Yeah, about that Democratic agenda. The Israel aid bill, which includes $9.1 billion in humanitarian assistance, passed 366-58. The bill to provide support for America’s defense of Taiwan and the surrounding Indochina area passed 385-34. And the most “controversial” of the three — the bill to provide aid to Ukraine — passed 311-112. Those numbers seem to indicate that it’s everyone’s agenda.
Greene believes that holding out on these bills gave Republican’s “leverage” to push for more border funding. But America can walk and chew gum at the same time. And the issues at the U.S. southern border cannot be attributed to funding, but to policy and administration, as Greene well knows, since she pushed for the impeachment of Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s secretary of Homeland Security.
Not that it matters to Greene, but the bill provides $11.3 billion “for current U.S. military operations in the region,” and “$26 million to continue oversight and accountability of aid and equipment provided to Ukraine.” But it’s not about that for Greene, who was one of only nine representatives to vote no on a motion “condemning the illegal abduction of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
All of this also raises the question as to why Greene would take to Fox News to threaten to fire the House speaker for acting on bills that progress foreign policy, which also happens to be an issue that Republicans out-poll Democrats on. Combine this with the fact that the last time she and her contemporaries fired a speaker (Kevin McCarthy), it almost resulted in the Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, becoming the speaker of the Republican-controlled House.
So, for those keeping track at home, Greene is against multiple issues her fellow Republicans support, wants to fire the House speaker without naming a replacement, and is perfectly OK with portraying her party disorganized and ineffectual during an election year. Who is putting America first? Greene cannot even put it before her desire for attention.
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