NEWS ANALYSIS: It broke for conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene when she could no longer hold back the giant parcel to Ukraine. And it went from bad to worse when she was about to get her revenge.
Published: 09/05/2024 11:31
Far-right representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was long best known for wild conspiracy theories. Like Jewish space lasers had started massive forest fires in California. But now the Republican has gained considerable influence. Not least as the foremost opponent of Ukraine support in Congress.
For many months, she was a key reason why the 61 billion dollar support package for Ukraine was put on hold. It was possible because she threatened a motion of no confidence against party member and speaker Mike Johnson if the package was adopted. The threat was credible since the Republicans only have a majority of a few members in the House of Representatives (House).
“Putin’s useful idiot”
But in late April, Johnson defied the threat. He got the Ukraine aid passed with the help of the Democrats’ votes.
It made Greene see red. She, like the Putin regime, has https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1779544515658838257 as “Nazis”.
Soon after the defeat in the House, she asked for help to start the rebellion against Johnson. After the vote, the House adjourned for a week. When it was over, Greene would arrange for the House to vote on her censure of Johnson.
But it ended rather with a rebellion against herself. “Putin’s useful idiot”, a “terrible leader” and “she is a total waste of time” were among the accusations hurled at her.
Greene hoped voters in the politicians’ home states would start the revolt against the speaker. The voters admittedly let themselves be heard. But it was not because they wanted to support her motion of no confidence. On the contrary. They wondered what her Republican colleagues could do to stop her.
– They like Mike.
That’s what Representative Barry Loudermilk of Greene’s home state of Georgia said when he returned to Washington DC last week.
He was diplomatic compared to quite a few others. One of those who went out the hardest was Senator Thom Tillis.
– I think she is uninformed, she is a total waste of time. And I’m ashamed to have lived in her district at some point before she was there, Tillis thundered to CNN.
– A terrible manager
He further referred to her as “a terrible leader” who is weakening the brand of the Republicans. Greene and her fellow far-right Republicans have helped create an impression of utter chaos.
The Republicans are in danger of losing the small majority of two members the party has in the House of Representatives. All members are up for election in the autumn.
– She – not the Democrats – poses the biggest risk of us not regaining the majority, says Tillis.
Even Donald Trump seems to have realized that the civil war is hurting the Republican Party. Therefore, he does not support the rebellion against Johnson, despite Greene being one of his closest supporters. He refers to her as a “good friend”.
– It is unfortunate that people bring this up, because right now we have far bigger problems, Trump said in April.
Of Johnson, Trump said this:
– I think he does a good job.
Despite the massive criticism from his own party, Greene refused to withdraw the motion of no confidence. That is why Trump chose to intervene again this weekend. Then, according to Politico, he had a longer phone conversation with her.
The message was that she had to retreat. After much back and forth, she defied Trump late on Wednesday evening Norwegian time. While party members booed, she formally tabled her motion of no confidence. Republican Michael Lawler said on CNN that “Moscow Marjorie has gone mad, clearly the result of space lasers”.
It all ended in an embarrassing defeat for Greene. An overwhelming majority of both Democrats and Republicans voted down the proposal.
It is not only his own party colleagues who are now settling against Greene. She also gets reviewed in the “party press”.
Not least in the New York Post, which, like Fox News, is controlled by the conservative multi-billionaire Rupert Murdoch. The day after she lost the Ukraine vote in the House, the tabloid newspaper hung her all over the front page under the headline “Njet, Moscow Marjorie”.
Celebrated in Moscow
In a comment in the same newspaper, Piers Morgan writes that Taylor Greene is Putin’s “useful idiot”. Morgan begins the comment by writing:
“Every time the crazy-eyed blond musky wonder Marjorie Taylor Greene opens her big, loud, curse-fueled mouth, I feel like some of my brain cells spontaneously die.”
In Moscow, on the other hand, she is praised on Russian state television.
