Hardliners in the GOP House Freedom Caucus are reportedly ready to boot Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) from their ranks for failing to be as extreme as she used to be.
A report from Politico notes that some in the influential right-wing caucus are ready to start “purging” some of their members for daring to go against their beliefs.
At least two hardliners have discussed — and proposed to Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry (R-Pa.) — trying to boot members who no longer meet the group’s standards, according to three Republicans with knowledge of the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity. The lawmakers declined to name who’s behind the ouster calls, underscoring the sensitivity of the situation.
While the members suggesting a purge did not specify the people they want to remove, they are signaling that one target of any ejection push is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Some in the Freedom Caucus have focused on Greene, who’s become a close ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, to illustrate their fears that certain group members are too aligned with GOP leaders and too outwardly critical of the group when it splits on certain issues.
Ever since she supported elevating Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) be Speaker of the House earlier this year, Greene has been under scrutiny, with some suggesting that she has abandoned the right-wing extremism the Freedom Caucus stands for.
“The speaker’s race, there was some difference in opinion. The debt ceiling, there were differences of opinion. And we had to get 80 percent on any major issue that we take positions on,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a Freedom Caucus member, referring to the threshold needed for the group to take a unified stance. “On some big issues, we have not been able to get there.”
Greene has also been publicly feuding with her one-time BFF, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who was reportedly confronted by the Georgian on the House floor and called a “little bitch,” according to The Daily Beast.
The angry exchange came as the two lawmakers have been swiping at each other over their competing resolutions to impeach President Joe Biden. But tensions came to a head on Wednesday after Boebert leveraged a procedural tool to force a vote on her own impeachment resolution within days—undercutting Greene, who had offered her own resolution, but not with the procedural advantages of forcing a vote.
Purging Greene from the Freedom Caucus could potentially harm her politically, especially if someone even more extreme decides to run against her in the 2024 Georgia Republican primary. And yet if Greene tries to track back to the right, she may also alienate her powerful benefactors, especially McCarthy, who is also on unsecure footing as rumblings have increased among members of the House who are ready to replace him.
