Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has reportedly been removed from the conservative House Freedom Caucus after a series of disagreements, including calling her colleague Rep. Lauren Boebert a “bitch” on the House floor.
Rep. Andy Harris, a Maryland Republican who serves on the board of the House Freedom Caucus, said that the group held a formal vote on Greene’s status last month, according to Politico and CNN. CNN separately reported that the group’s rules are tightly held, but Harris believes that for all intents and purposes she has been removed.
“As far as I know, that is the way it is,” Harris told Politico.
Harris told Politico that Greene’s clash with Boebert was the final straws for the Georgia Republican. Conservatives had been upset with Greene for months due to her close ties to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Historically, the Freedom Caucus has clashed with GOP leaders, most notably former Speaker John Boehner.
“I think the way she referred to a fellow member was probably not the way we expect our members to refer to other fellow, especially female, members,” Harris told Politico.
Greene was incensed that Boebert was, in her view, co-opting a push to impeach President Joe Biden and members of his administration. Greene confirmed to reporters that she called Boebert a “bitch” on the floor and then repeated the insult in a later interview.
“She has genuinely been a nasty little bitch to me,” Greene told Semafor. Boebert told reporters she was “not in middle school” when asked to respond.
This is a historic moment for the conservative group. It has never before formally voted to boot one of its members. The caucus is selective in who it allows in for membership and refuses to release a full roster of its members.
Then-Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan resigned from the group after he became the first Republican to say that President Donald Trump had committed “impeachable conduct.” Amash had been a founding member of the conservative group.
A spokesperson for the Freedom Caucus did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did a spokesperson for Greene.
It’ll be interesting to see what he does. Either way he’s coming out with scars.
If he finally tells the Freedom Caucus to go fuck itself, and builds a coalition with Democrats, he’ll be doing wonders for the GOP’s image. Showing extremists the door in favor of cooperation for moderate policies is what people want to see. And McCarthy may get personal fame for it, possibly even better political aspirations. However, he’d earn the ire of the Freedom Caucus and his primary would get a lot harder. It’s possible he would piss off too much of his base. The Republicans would start rehabilitating their image, but at the cost of handing Democrats 2024 with the extremists fracturing off.
On the other hand, if he stays a little bitch to the extremists, he’ll continue to get squeezed on all of these budget negotiations and inevitably blamed. By not decisively taking action with the Caucus, tensions and fractures continue to grow in the GOP. And they continue to be seen as the children in the room and, well, extremists.
Before writing this out I actually thought there was a decent chance McCarthy would grow a spine. But now looking at everything else that would happen, yeah it’s unlikely as hell.
Standing up to the fascists would probably cost him his job, but at least it would be an attempt to draw a line in the sand.
But neither Boehner nor Ryan nor McCarthy have enough spine to actually stand up to the extremists. Instead, they’re happy with keeping a title that means less and less, only to eventually slink away and never be heard from again.
These guys could go out with a bang, with a big fight, with a grand proclamation that Republicans don’t stand for extremism or fascism or homophobia or sexism or white supremacy or racism - but their willingness to idly stand by and let the fascists and extremists and white supremacists and conspiracy theorists run the show tells you all you need to know about them.
Well said.