Marjorie Taylor Greene Finally Responds to Getting Ousted From Freedom Caucus
As we wrote on Thursday, the members of the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) at a meeting of the conservative group in June; the revelation was only reported yesterday. According to Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), who sits on the board of the HFC, Greene’s behavior during the recent spat she had on the House floor with fellow HFC member, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), was the crux of the reason she was ousted.There were scant details, though, on what the congresswoman’s removal will mean going forward, and multiple outlets’ reports stressed that there was no reaction from Greene or her office.
Now, sources are telling Axios that Greene has refused to return calls from HFC members—both before and after the vote took place.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has not responded to calls by top members of the House Freedom Caucus aimed at notifying her that she has been ousted from the influential conservative group, two lawmakers familiar with the situation told Axios.
A board member of the HFC “said that Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.) unsuccessfully tried to reach out to the Georgia Republican both before and after a vote was held to remove her to discuss her colleagues’ grievances with her behavior.”
They continued:
She was unresponsive and resisted and refused efforts to meet with or talk with Chairman Perry, and so the vote was held without that conversation being held.
There is an answer to one question that lingered from Thursday: Greene’s response to getting ousted. Axios reported that while the congresswoman still hasn’t commented directly about the situation, Greene did release a statement Thursday, that she serves “Northwest Georgia first, and serve [sic] no group in Washington.”
The other politician who spoke to Axios portrayed the rift between Rep. Greene and the Freedom Caucus as mendable, saying that while her absence from the HFC was definite, that was “pending a conversation with her.”
But to me, the following remark from another board member doesn’t sound like a friendly chit chat will smooth things out for everyone:
What they’re saying: Despite the failed attempts to reach her during the House’s July 4 recess, the senior HFC member asserted that she will no longer be able to partake in meetings.
- “This was a notification, not a negotiation,” the board member added.
It’s no small thing for a conservative congresscritter to be voted out of a conservative congressional group—even if that vote may have been used as a de facto censure, more than an effort to separate Greene from the HFC. We’ll see how things shake out in the next week or so.
There’s also this quandry. As many readers are aware, Greene isn’t known for keeping her thoughts and feelings close to the vest. That’s why the silence from her on something concerning many in our movement is mysterious. My hunch is that one of two things will happen before long—she’ll address the ousting in a speech or we’ll get a more verbose statement from her or her office. In the meantime, I think sending up a prayer or two for Rep. Greene wouldn’t hurt anything.
Post a Comment