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Furious Marjorie Taylor Greene unloads on ‘self-serving’ ‘so-called friends’ for opposing McCarthy

January 4, 2023 | | Print Article

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene unloaded Tuesday on her fellow GOP “friends” in the House who’re opposing Kevin McCarthy’s bid for House speaker.

As previously reported, a small team of conservatives — including Reps. Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert — have been refusing to vote for McCarthy:

Their refusal resulted in the House adjourning Tuesday without a speaker — and this despite them securing a bunch of concessions from McCarthy.

Greene was not pleased.

“If my friends in the Freedom Caucus will not take the win when they have it, they’re proving to the country that they don’t care about doing the right thing for America. They’re proving to the country that they’re just destructionists, and that’s not what we need to do as a party. That’s why Republicans fail. And I’m really tired of it,” she at one point said to reporters.

Listen:

Greene later doubled down in a lengthy statement made to C-SPAN following a failed conference call.

She first blasted the holdouts for selfishly trying to secure concessions for themselves and themselves only.

“In that conference meeting there, we found out that there were several members — three in fact — that went in last night and were demanding positions for themselves. Demanding gavel positions. Demanding subcommittees. Demanding for people to be taken to be off committees and for people to be put on committees. Three. Three Republicans out of 2022,” she said.

“I want to let you know that I have not done that for myself. The only thing that I’ve done is debate and request and argue among my peers for the right things for the rules package and for our agenda for the American people. And that’s the only thing I’ve done. I haven’t asked for one thing for myself. And I’m the only Republican who has zero committees, so you would think that I’d be the one in there asking for something. But I haven’t done that,” she added.

Listen to her full remarks below:

She then tore into the holdouts’ reasons for not supporting McCarthy, including his prior support for Paul Ryan.

“My friend, Matt Gaetz, he supported Paul Ryan almost more than anyone. It’s still on his social media. As a matter of fact, his first vote in Congress was for Paul Ryan as speaker. Then he cheered him on for nearly a year and a half or more, when people like me were at home furious at Paul Ryan’s speakership because it wasn’t passing the MAGA agenda that we all supported,” she said.

She also noted how much money the holdouts, including Boebert, have collected in donations from McCarthy, the same man they now refuse to support.

Greene concluded her remarks by blasting her peers for turning into “Never Kevin” caricatures.

“Many more people have taken Kevin McCarthy’s money to get elected, and then there’s a few of them that don’t want to support him as speaker, so imagine that. This is not anything about the country. This is all about ‘Never Kevin.’ They just don’t like Kevin McCarthy. And you cannot be successful in anything if you aren’t able to walk into a room, make what you want, and get a deal done, and then walk away with a W and get to work and not worry about who you like and who you don’t like. This is not about prom king. This is not about a pastor,” she said.

“This is about electing a person to sit in the speaker chair so we can all get to work. And let me remind everyone, there’s 218 votes to get something passed. That means all of us are powerful. Every single faction in the Republican Party. So there’s not going to be a tiny group that’s going to demand their way because they want subcommittee chairs and they want certain power positions. That is not how this works. And that is the worst thing that they can do for the country. And I’m furious over it. And I’m going to continue calling them out,” she concluded.

As of Wednesday morning, there was still no speaker, and some conservatives were growing increasingly concerned about what this could mean for the House:

Could Republicans really lose the House to Democrats, though? Only if some Republicans voted for a Democrat speaker — which, thankfully, is something that’s extremely unlikely to occur.

Vivek Saxena
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