Rep. Andy Harris has been saying for a week that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was kicked out of the House Freedom Caucus. MTG hadn’t officially confirmed this news until Wednesday. She did so on CNN.
Greene and Rep. Lauren Boebert had a verbal altercation on the House floor that was loud enough and disruptive enough that they were told to take their conversation off the floor. MTG called Boebert a little b**ch. All the ruckus was over the fact that Lauren Boebert copied her articles of impeachment against Joe Biden, she said. MTG doesn’t want to be upstaged, as she said she filed impeachement papers on Biden at the beginning of the current session. Boebert filed a fast-tracked impeachment resolution against Biden. Speaker McCarthy wants to go the appropriate route for impeachment, if the House takes it up, not the fast-track approach. MTG was angry that Boebert was stealing her thunder.
The Freedom Caucus members didn’t appreciate the spectacle on the House floor, especially MTG calling Boebert the B-word loud enough for others to hear on the House floor. Decorum, anyone? It was the straw that broke the camel’s back, apparently, and the House Freedom Caucus voted her out. They also were ready to do so because of her support for Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Her dismissal from the group was in question because she refused to return their phone calls. Freedom Caucus’ Chairman Scott Perry wanted to deliver the news to MTG personally. When asked why she didn’t return the calls, she said, “I don’t care. I’m not interested in any type of drama, or petty conversations.”
‘I enjoy being a free agent a lot better,’ Greene also told CNN. ‘I’m interested in getting accomplishments done, not doing things just to disrupt and fight leadership. And that’s a major difference.’
The fighting between MTG and Boebert goes back for months. In January, MTG confronted Boebert in the ladies restroom about not supporting Kevin McCarthy. The House Freedom Caucus are known as Never Kevins. They do what they can to disrupt whatever McCarthy is doing in the House. MTG ruffled feathers by explaining that members could support both Trump and McCarthy. She has been a top supporter of McCarthy since January.
The House Freedom Caucus may be breathing its last breaths anyway. It is no longer manageable.
On Monday, CNN reported on the deep tensions within the Freedom Caucus, which was launched in 2015 by Rep. Jim Jordan, among others, to move House Republican leadership to the right.
Now around 40 members strong, the group has become unwieldy, with members split on how much they should support McCarthy and whether they should officially back the 2024 White House run of former President Donald Trump.
‘Days are numbered anyway for the group,’ one conservative lawmaker told CNN. ‘Because they go in 100 different directions.’
Too many egos and opinions to be effective anymore.
MTG has already endorsed Trump for president in 2024 and a common assumption is that she is hoping to be his vice presidential choice. The House Freedom Caucus wants to go its own way, working against other Republicans and especially Speaker McCarthy.
‘The reality is they’re mad at her for playing ball with McCarthy and, and still being one of Trump’s favorites,’ a conservative lawmaker told CNN. ‘It’s pretty evident. That’s what’s gone down.’
It will be interesting to see how MTG moves forward from here. Her sudden conversion to declaring that she is no longer interested in drama is quite a flex. Drama was her brand. She was a bomb-thrower to get attention, often with Boebert. The two would sit together and often jeer or try to be disruptive when Biden, for example, addressed Congress. The team has broken up.
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