To briefly secure the job of House speaker 15 months ago, Kevin McCarthy made concessions that cost him that job and which continue to cost the Republican Party. McCarthy made it so that one member could force a vote to oust a speaker, for example, and he gave the hard right significant power on a Rules Committee that now gums up the works for leadership. There might have been plenty more included in this bargain; the full scale of it was for some reason kept secret.
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High on that list is a more informal concession McCarthy made: legitimizing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). McCarthy did so in the name of trying to wrangle the conspiratorial right she effectively leads.
Increasingly, the right is starting to reckon with the predictable drawbacks of that.
Sen. Thom Tillis’s (R-N.C.) comments to CNN on Tuesday were particularly biting. Amid Greene’s efforts to oust McCarthy’s successor, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Tillis called her a “waste of time” and a “horrible leader.”
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“She is dragging our brand down,” Tillis said. “She — not the Democrats — are the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority.”
Tillis added, “I’m embarrassed to have actually lived geographically in her district at one time before she was there.”
Greene’s fights against Johnson and Ukraine aid, among other issues, such as banning TikTok, have also earned her increasing criticism from right-leaning media:
Republicans have criticized Greene before — often somewhat obliquely — but McCarthy’s speaker bid in early 2023 presented something of a slate-clearing moment for her and the party.
The tenor of Fox News’s other coverage of Greene has also been skeptical lately.
Last month, Fox host Laura Ingraham played a clip of Greene talking about China buying up U.S. farmland and quipped: “I’m losing that caboose of thought there. God bless her.”
On Sunday, Greene was even treated to a skeptical interview from usual MAGA booster Maria Bartiromo.
“How is this leading to reelecting President Trump? How is this leading to the American people believing that the Republicans can govern?” Bartiromo asked Greene, adding later: “I guess what I’m saying is, how does this help keeping a majority in the House? How does this help by electing your candidate — you know, your candidate?”
She also pressed Greene on what her plan was for what happens after ousting Johnson, ultimately concluding that Greene had avoided her question. “Well, with all due respect, you didn’t give me a plan for the speaker’s role,” Bartiromo said.
The same day on Fox, former GOP congressman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said a Greene remark “sounds like a Democrat attack ad.” Former congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) added, “Yes. I didn’t hear the name [Democratic House leader] Hakeem Jeffries come out of her lips and talk about the frustration that she has for the Democrats.”
This is the tenor of much of the criticism. It’s not so much that Greene has been an extreme conspiracy theorist who once unapologetically appeared at a conference hosted by a white nationalist — Republicans made peace with all that long ago. It’s that she’s suddenly playing into the hands of Russia and the Democrats. The fear of the intraparty discord that she uses to elevate herself is suddenly becoming very real with the 2024 election just over six months away.
But the realization that this is someone Republicans shouldn’t hitch their brand to has been dawning for a while. Greene isn’t even particularly popular with the GOP base; an early-2023 poll showed her image among Republicans (30 percent favorable, compared to 19 percent unfavorable) was better only than now-former congressman George Santos (N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) among a list of 11 high-profile Republicans. She was one of the GOP’s biggest underperformers in the 2022 election.
Nor is her current crusade particularly in line with the GOP base; a Monmouth University poll Wednesday showed just 20 percent of Republicans want Johnson out. Another 32 percent oppose that, and 47 percent have no opinion.
As I wrote at the time McCarthy was elevating Greene: “There’s little question she’ll test the wisdom of GOP leadership’s newfound affection for her.”
But there were (very) short-term politics to be played. It didn’t work out for McCarthy. It’s not really working out for his party, either.
Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.
High on that list is a more informal concession McCarthy made: legitimizing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). McCarthy did so in the name of trying to wrangle the conspiratorial right she effectively leads.
Increasingly, the right is starting to reckon with the predictable drawbacks of that.
Sen. Thom Tillis’s (R-N.C.) comments to CNN on Tuesday were particularly biting. Amid Greene’s efforts to oust McCarthy’s successor, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Tillis called her a “waste of time” and a “horrible leader.”
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“She is dragging our brand down,” Tillis said. “She — not the Democrats — are the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority.”
Tillis added, “I’m embarrassed to have actually lived geographically in her district at one time before she was there.”
Greene’s fights against Johnson and Ukraine aid, among other issues, such as banning TikTok, have also earned her increasing criticism from right-leaning media:
- The New York Post cover on Sunday blared “NYET, MOSCOW MARJORIE.” (Nyet is Russian for no.) It has recently run pieces calling her “Putin’s useful idiot” and referring to her plot against Johnson as a “lunatic case.”
- A Fox News opinion columnist wrote a piece last week titled: “Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot. She is trying to wreck the GOP.”
- The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal — like the New York Post and Fox, a property of the Murdoch media empire — recently christened her “Rep. Mayhem Taylor Greene” and said she “and her crew of vandals prefer to scream and throw soup at the walls.”
- Even the staunchly pro-Donald Trump Newsmax recently ran a piece asking, “Who put Marjorie Taylor Greene in charge?”
Republicans have criticized Greene before — often somewhat obliquely — but McCarthy’s speaker bid in early 2023 presented something of a slate-clearing moment for her and the party.
The tenor of Fox News’s other coverage of Greene has also been skeptical lately.
Last month, Fox host Laura Ingraham played a clip of Greene talking about China buying up U.S. farmland and quipped: “I’m losing that caboose of thought there. God bless her.”
On Sunday, Greene was even treated to a skeptical interview from usual MAGA booster Maria Bartiromo.
“How is this leading to reelecting President Trump? How is this leading to the American people believing that the Republicans can govern?” Bartiromo asked Greene, adding later: “I guess what I’m saying is, how does this help keeping a majority in the House? How does this help by electing your candidate — you know, your candidate?”
She also pressed Greene on what her plan was for what happens after ousting Johnson, ultimately concluding that Greene had avoided her question. “Well, with all due respect, you didn’t give me a plan for the speaker’s role,” Bartiromo said.
The same day on Fox, former GOP congressman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said a Greene remark “sounds like a Democrat attack ad.” Former congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) added, “Yes. I didn’t hear the name [Democratic House leader] Hakeem Jeffries come out of her lips and talk about the frustration that she has for the Democrats.”
This is the tenor of much of the criticism. It’s not so much that Greene has been an extreme conspiracy theorist who once unapologetically appeared at a conference hosted by a white nationalist — Republicans made peace with all that long ago. It’s that she’s suddenly playing into the hands of Russia and the Democrats. The fear of the intraparty discord that she uses to elevate herself is suddenly becoming very real with the 2024 election just over six months away.
But the realization that this is someone Republicans shouldn’t hitch their brand to has been dawning for a while. Greene isn’t even particularly popular with the GOP base; an early-2023 poll showed her image among Republicans (30 percent favorable, compared to 19 percent unfavorable) was better only than now-former congressman George Santos (N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) among a list of 11 high-profile Republicans. She was one of the GOP’s biggest underperformers in the 2022 election.
Nor is her current crusade particularly in line with the GOP base; a Monmouth University poll Wednesday showed just 20 percent of Republicans want Johnson out. Another 32 percent oppose that, and 47 percent have no opinion.
As I wrote at the time McCarthy was elevating Greene: “There’s little question she’ll test the wisdom of GOP leadership’s newfound affection for her.”
But there were (very) short-term politics to be played. It didn’t work out for McCarthy. It’s not really working out for his party, either.
