This would be funny if it didn’t mean that Marge Greene could end up being a “mainstream” Republican politician once the smoke has cleared:
Tensions inside the conservative House Freedom Caucus have reached the point that some members are floating the idea of purging colleagues from the group.
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.
The risk of an outside-the-tent conservative becoming too friendly with the establishment isn’t the only problem that Freedom Caucus purists have identified, though. Internal Freedom Caucus critics are talking about targeting a handful of members beyond Greene, too, whom they see as violating group standards by being inactive.
Perry told POLITICO that he denied the removal requests. Yet the fact that he had to illustrates how the group continues to struggle with its identity since former President Donald Trump left office, not to mention the acrimony caused in the lead-up to the handshake deals McCarthy made to win conservative votes during January’s grueling speakership battle.
“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.”
“We’re at a critical point right now,” he added.
As for internal concerns about Greene, Norman said he wasn’t suggesting pushing her out but replied: “She’s been critical of us for a long time.”
Compounding that sentiment: an ugly floor fight this week between Greene and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) over their competing resolutions to impeach President Joe Biden. Greene confirmed a Daily Beast report that she called her Freedom Caucus colleague “a little bitch” on the House floor, telling reporters that the story was “impressively correct.”
In an interview following the spat, Boebert demurred when asked where she stands on the Freedom Caucus purge pitch: “If something comes up,” she said, “then we’ll address it.”
“It’s really unfortunate that somebody communicated the conversation that took place on the floor” between herself and Greene, Boebert added, “because I was willing to walk away [from] people wanting to stir up unnecessary drama.”
She criticized reporters for focusing on “pettiness” rather than her impeachment proposal: “I didn’t leave my four kids and now my grandson to come up here and have cat fights and just to get in squabbles.”
Boebert isn’t the only fellow Freedom Caucus member Greene has challenged. The Georgian has hit back at conservative colleagues who suggested a possible forced vote to oust McCarthy from the speakership after his debt deal with Biden.
Anyone who would consider that option in response to the bipartisan debt vote “need[s] to really get down into a more realistic level of thinking,” Greene said this month, alluding to the necessity of compromise under divided government. “I’m just as conservative as they are. … There’s conservative fantasies and there’s reality — that’s the best way to say it.”
As prized as party unity is in the House, some in the Freedom Caucus see the group’s issues as matters of trust — not disagreements over one vote or another. Two of the three group members who confirmed the ouster discussions said certain lawmakers hold back during weekly Freedom Caucus meetings, fearing that other conservatives in attendance will tell McCarthy and his allies about any talk that GOP leadership won’t like.
That leeriness has created cliques within the group itself.
“There are frustrations,” said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), a Freedom Caucus member.
I can’t help it:
