One thing’s for certain regarding Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: When it comes to conspiratorial impeachment pushes, she wants her credit.
The Georgia Republican’s outburst toward Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., last year over who’d receive credit for trying to impeach President Joe Biden was revealing.
And now Greene is trying her damnedest to ensure she gets credit for another impeachment effort: House Republicans’ baseless push to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Given that she has been floated as one of former President Donald Trump’s potential vice presidential picks, one theory of mine is that she may want to play up her successes on the impeachment front to aid her chances.
Regardless, Democrats are happy to give her all the credit she desires when it comes to this effort, as Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., demonstrated Tuesday as the House Homeland Security Committee met to discuss the impeachment articles against Mayorkas. The Mississippi Democrat name-checked Greene as being among those who have “pushed for and even fundraised based on this preplanned, predetermined scapegoating of the secretary.”
.@BennieGThompson: The sham impeachment of Secretary Mayorkas is a baseless political stunt by extreme MAGA Republicans. Chairman Green, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and others have pushed for and fundraised based on this preplanned, predetermined scapegoating of the Secretary. pic.twitter.com/Fo5YmZg0HL
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) January 30, 2024
Greene has gone on a press tour to emphasize her view that the Mayorkas impeachment push wouldn’t have reached this point without her. And to talk about how the effort aligns with Trump’s political plans.
After all, she has been a key voice in the House pushing the MAGA movement’s claim that the immigration crisis unfolding along the U.S.-Mexico border is because Mayorkas — and the Biden administration more broadly — has willfully disobeyed immigration laws. And according to conservative extremists such as Greene, the impetus is that Democrats want to alter the United States’ demographic makeup. (This belief aligns with the racist “replacement theory” espoused by many white nationalists.)
On Monday, Greene told The Hill that this week’s movement forward on impeachment is “absolutely” the result of her efforts.
On Monday, Greene told The Hill that this week’s movement forward on impeachment is “absolutely” the result of her efforts.
Greene essentially repeated the same thing to conservative outlet Townhall, but she added some thoughts on how Trump is responding to recent vows from House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, to block a bipartisan immigration deal that’s taking shape in the Senate.
Greene and Trump have both urged Johnson to block the legislation in the House, and Greene told Townhall that she and Trump are “very, very happy” about Johnson “standing strong.”
“The border is a top issue for him,” Greene said of Trump.
If Democrats are looking for evidence that right-wing opposition to immigration reform is a political witch hunt designed to raise conservatives’ political profiles and help Trump in November, they need look no further than Greene’s latest remarks. Because she’s not even trying to hide the crude political calculation undergirding this whole ordeal.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.