CWhen Marjorie Taylor Greene was elected to theChamber of DeputiesIn 2020, she became one of the most visible of a wave of extremists pouring into the Republican Party, whose often bizarre pronouncements have pushed the boundaries of what was once the norm of American politics.
The Georgian MP whorecommendedJewish space lasers are responsible for forest fires,speculatedif 9/11 was a hoax and he supported the QAnon conspiracy theory, he was part of a new wave of Trumpian Republicans and has been ridiculed, ridiculed, and vilified in equal measure, including by some in his own party.
But in 2023, Greene is now firmly on his way to becoming one of the leaders of the Republican Party. He became a favorite and important ally ofKevin McCarthy, the new Speaker of the House, and is preparing to serve on some of the most prominent committees in Congress.
It was a remarkable rise that few could have predicted in a spring of 2021 when Greene became known for his penchant for offbeat conspiracy theories and eccentric commentary, but his rise to the upper echelons of the Republican Party has been confirmed. . . by McCarthy this week inan interviewcom o New York Times.
"If you get into a fight, you want Marjorie in your foxhole," McCarthy said.
"If she starts a fight, she'll fight until the fight is over. It reminds me of my high school friends who stuck together all the time."
Greene saw this obvious tendency to fight.rewardedwith positions on the National Security Committee, despite theirpreviously thoughtfulthat no planes crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11 and the Oversight Committee where she sitsexpectedIntegrate a subcommittee to analyze the Government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
If the latter seems problematic, given Greene's vocal suspicions and conspiracy theories about the pandemic, in January it waspermanently bannedTwitter for repeated violations of the rules on misinformation about Covid-19, just because many of the things Greene said and did are problematic.
In 2021, Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader of the Senate,condemnedGreene's "Crazy Lies and Conspiracy Theories" About Greeneclaimed supportfor the execution of democratic politicians andbrotherthe survivor of a mass shooting at school.
Later that year, McCarthy himself, who had already tried to avoid the conflict,felt compelled to interveneafter Greene compared Covid masking rules to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany.
"Marjorie is wrong, and her conscious decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust to wearing a mask is appalling," McCarthy said.
“The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity in history. The fact that this has to be said today is deeply disturbing,” she said.
The multiple rebukes and the enormity of Greene's beliefs, denied or not, make her all the more notable for being on some of the most powerful committees in Congress.
Greene's meteoric rise to fame began whensupported McCarthyfor the house tour, two months before the finalabsurd votewhich saw him elected after 15 votes. Greene came in early and declared her support for him.in Novemberno steve bannon podcast.
For McCarthy, who was an unpopular figure among far-right voters and politicians (it was an election by the latter which meant the nature of his promotion to speaker was embarrassing at best), it was a needed boost.
McCarthy and Greene spent months developing a working relationship they believed to be mutually beneficial, with Greene calming down the wilder wing of the two.republicanin the House of Representatives and among voters at home, and McCarthy gave prominence to someone who had been stripped of her committee duties in 2021, leaving her with essentially nothing to do in Washington.
The New York Times reported that as McCarthy prepared for office, he was aware of the problems his centrist predecessors, John Boehner and Paul Ryan, faced in dealing with their far-right counterparts.
BothRyanand Boehner, whom some of his right-wing colleagues later called "idiots— faced battles with the Freedom Caucus, a conservative and often filibustering group of Republican congressmen, as they tried to pass the legislation.
Greene remains one of the most popular figures among Trump supporters and believers, as evidenced by his 758,000 followers on Trump's Truth Social website - McCarthy has 113,000, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has 109,000. - and has a close relationship with former presidents. untilvocationTrump from the floor of the House of Representatives during the leadership election debacle in January.
Greene is also a successful fundraiser, raising $12.5 million in the 2021-22 election cycle, the fifth-most of any Republican representative. His grassroots popularity and his alignment with Trump make her a role model for the new Republican politician.
For his part, Greene has tried to clean up some of the uninformed and conspiracy-oriented views that have shaped his political career. In early 2022, Greene began a conscious and "methodical" reinvention, asayingMuere Washington Post.
From his position on the sidelines, with a seat in Congress but no significant role in the Chamber of Deputies, he began to think about the future. Greene, like most observers, believed McCarthy would be the next House speaker and saw a role for herself as a bridge between the far right and less crazy Republicans, the Post reported.
As he tried to sell himself to a larger audience, Greene chose not to speak.no more white nationalist rallies, or talk about the "gazpacho police" who seem to be patrolling the United States Capitol. (Her comment about him was generally taken to the Gestapo.) He has yet to repeat it.Claim 2018that the Clinton family orchestrated the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy Jr. for more than two decades.
Adding to this new reserve, Greene hired a new adviser with experience in mainstream Conservative politics, and eventually began meeting with McCarthy once a week as the two forged a close bond, each aware of the potential benefits.
McCarthy would win the presidency. But his concessions to his rights, epitomized by his promotion of Greene, come at a price. McCarthy has already pursued Greene-backed far-right strategies on vaccinations and treatment of the 9/6 perpetrators, which Greene has happily put behind him.
"People need to understand that I'm not the only one who deserves recognition," Greene told the New York Times.
“It is the will and the voice of our base that has been heard and Kevin has heard it. I was just a vehicle most of the time."
If Greene has shown a degree of false humility, his belief that he is channeling the will of the people and his willingness to make his voice heard is a warning of the magnitude of the influence he is now exerting.
In his new roles, GreeneisShe will investigate: "How many of our enemies have pallets of money?" of unemployment benefits for Covid-19, a question that she asked and asked without context or explanationpromisedto accuse the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, of his alleged omission in dealing with immigration.
From Greene's political stance in February 2021, when he wasFORMof her committee duties by Democrats, and some Republicans, in a rebuke for inflammatory and racist comments, of which she was one.Post a mock imageHer at gunpoint alongside three Democratic lawmakers, all women of color, on Facebook was a remarkable game changer.
Less than two years later, Greene served on two of the House's most prominent committees. She has a metaphorical chair to the mayor's right and will enjoy the visibility that it all brings.
It's a testament to how quickly things can change in politics, but also a highly visible reminder of what the Republican Party increasingly stands for.
Greene may have tried to clean up his image, but it's clear that his brand of populism, outrage, and misinformation is no longer as embarrassing to party leaders as it once was: This is the modern version of the GOP.