 |
| Photo Credit: AP. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Marjorie Taylor Greene took her seat directly behind Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, a proximity to power for the firebrand congresswoman that did not go unnoticed, as he unveiled the House GOP’s midterm election agenda in Pennsylvania.
Days later,
she appeared on stage warming up the crowd for Donald Trump, when the former
president rallied voters in Michigan to cast ballots for Republicans, including
for control of Congress.
Once shunned
as a political pariah for her extremist rhetoric, the Georgia congresswoman who
spent her first term in the House stripped of institutional power by Democrats
is being celebrated by Republicans and welcomed into the GOP fold. If
Republicans win the House majority in the November election, Greene is poised
to become an influential player shaping the GOP agenda, an agitator with clout.
“No. 1, we
need to impeach Joe Biden. No. 2, We need to impeach Secretary Mayorkas. And
No. 3, we should impeach Merrick Garland,” Greene told The Associated Press
outside the U.S. Capitol. Alejandro Mayorkas is the secretary of the Department
of Homeland Security and Garland the attorney general.
Scolding the
media for having been “wrong about me” from the start, she said those who know
better “take me very seriously.”
“I’m going to be a strong legislator and I’ll
be a very involved member of Congress,” she predicted. “I know how to work
inside, and I know how to work outside. And I’m looking forward to doing that.”
This is the
outlook for the Republican Party in the Trump era, the normalizing of once
fringe figures into the highest ranks of political power. It’s a sign of the
GOP’s rightward drift that Greene’s association with extremists and
nationalists, violent rhetoric and remarks about Jewish people have found a
home in elected office. Her ascent brings into focus the challenge ahead for
McCarthy, whose GOP ranks are filling with far-right political stars with the
potential to play an oversized role in setting the policies, priorities and
tone of the new Congress.
“I’ve said
for a long time there’s a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican
Party,” said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, at a
briefing ahead of the midterm elections.
When the
congresswoman says outlandish things — as she did at the Trump rally earlier
this month claiming “Democrats want Republicans dead, and they’ve already
started the killings” — few Republican leaders dare a public or private rebuke
of such incendiary language. In this case, she was exaggerating two local
incidents involving politics, one that ended tragically in a fatality.
Greene’s
political currency stretches beyond her massive social media following and her
ability to rake in sizable sums from donors. Her proximity to Trump makes her a
force that cannot be ignored by what’s left of her mainstream GOP colleagues.
McCarthy’s
allowance for Greene to sit front and center with leadership for the campaign
rollout was not by accident but design. The Republican lawmakers in attendance
celebrated her presence, calling it a sign of the GOP’s “big tent” that
welcomes all comers. But Greene’s arrival also signaled a stark normalizing of
the most extreme elements in the Republican Party.
Longtime
political strategist Rick Wilson, a former Republican who left the party in the
Trump era, calls Greene’s brand of politics “government by trolling” that marks
a dangerous new era for the GOP and will make it difficult to govern. McCarthy
is in line to become House speaker if Republicans regain the majority.
“No matter
what the trolling part of the Republican caucus does, you can’t ever satisfy
them,” said Wilson, now at the Lincoln Project.
With the
departure of the last vestiges of the anti-Trump wing of the House GOP — Liz
Cheney defeated by a primary opponent and Adam Kinzinger deciding to step down
rather than seek reelection — “that’s it,” Wilson said.
Greene swept
onto the national stage in the 2020 election, catapulted forward even before
she took office. As the lawmaker-elect from northwest Georgia, she attended a
key organizing meeting at the Trump White House as lawmakers laid plans to
object to the certification of Joe Biden’s election on Jan. 6, 2021. When she
arrived to be sworn into Congress, she wore a “Trump Won” face mask.
Democrats
moved swiftly and unequivocally to reprimand Greene, voting to strip her of
congressional committee assignments over her incendiary rhetoric, including
trafficking in volatile conspiracy theories. Greene drew rebuke from her own
party a few months later for comparing mandatory COVID-19 face masks to the
treatment of Jewish people by Nazi Germany.
While some
have tried to compare Greene to outspoken far-left lawmakers, it became clear
even to Republican leaders that Greene stood in a category of her own.
At that
time, McCarthy called her comments about the Holocaust “wrong” and “appalling.”
Greene later apologized.
In many
ways, Greene’s arrival in the House traces the arc of the Republican Party’s
rightward evolution from the Newt Gingrich revolution that brought
conservatives to power in the 1994 election, to the “tea party” Republicans
that regained the House majority in 2010.
Jack
Kingston, a former Republican congressman who rose during those earlier eras,
said McCarthy was smart in welcoming Greene to unfurl the House GOP’s “Commitment
to America” last month.
“He’s got to
work with her, and he knows that,” Kingston said.
“Getting
Marjorie Taylor Greene on board is very important,” he said. “If you don’t
bring everybody in the tent, they’re going to find their own niche.”
In the
interview, Greene said she is certain she will be reinstated on her
congressional committees if Republicans win the majority, eyeing the House
Oversight panel, and is talking to leadership about other opportunities in the
new Congress.
Not only
does Greene want to impeach Biden and Cabinet officials, she is eager to
conduct investigations, including into the origins of COVID-19.
Last month,
Greene unveiled legislation that is another priority — her bill to prohibit
some gender reassignment procedures on minors — flanked by a dozen Republican
lawmakers and leaders in the conservative movement. Many of them praised the
congresswoman for her work.
“I want to
thank Marjorie Taylor Greene — who is soon to get her full legislative powers
back, by the way,” said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the Conservative Political
Action Committee, who hugged her afterward.
“If this is
the type of thing that you’re going to have the courage to do, I think that’s
something everybody needs to understand,” Schlapp said.
McCarthy and
Greene appear to have come to an understanding that they need each other. The
leader needs Greene to come into the GOP fold rather than throw rocks from
outside. She needs McCarthy’s blessing to regain committee assignments,
enabling her to participate more fully in Congress and put her imprint on
legislation.
At the
Pennsylvania event McCarthy batted away questions about his ability to govern if
Republicans win the majority.
“Name me one
person in the conference that is opposed to this,” he said afterward of their
platform. “Is that a difference? Yes.”
Follow AP
for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections