WASHINGTON — Nearly two weeks ago, members of the House Freedom Caucus voted to expel Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, from the ultra-conservative group. It is not yet clear if that vote was successful.
Since that June 23 Freedom Caucus meeting, Chairman Scott Perry, R-PA, and Greene have had multiple conservations. But a Republican source familiar with those conversations said Perry has not directly notified Greene that she has been removed from the caucus.
Another Republican source, who requested anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations, said Perry hasn’t brought it up because he wants to sit down and talk to Greene about it in person, which will probably happen next week.
Perry and the Freedom Caucus have not commented publicly on the matter and have not returned requests for comment.
The vote to oust the congresswoman, who goes by the nickname MTG, came after some of her conservative colleagues were furious over her support for Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.,’s successful bid for speaker and his debt ceiling deal with President Joe Biden.
But the final straw may have been his confrontation last month with Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, whom he called a “little b—-” on the House floor.
A Freedom Caucus meeting was hastily called for 8 a.m. on the last day before the two-week July 4 recess two days later and voted Greene out of the caucus, according to two sources familiar. A third source familiar with the deliberations said the vote was overwhelming in favor of ousting Greene.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene was voted out of the House Freedom Caucus because of some of the things she has done,” a member of the group, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
“The way he referred to a fellow member was probably not the way we expect our members to refer to other members, especially women,” he said.
But several Freedom Caucus members said they had not been told the meeting agenda beforehand and did not attend. The early morning meeting was held on a Friday before recess and it is unclear if enough members were present to form a quorum.
Multiple sources have described the confused situation as “a mess,” and the group will almost certainly have to review Greene’s membership when lawmakers return from recess next week.
Greene is one of the biggest names in the Freedom Caucus and has been one of the biggest fundraisers for the House Freedom Fund, a caucus-aligned super PAC.
In a defiant statement to NBC News, Greene suggested he was not indebted to the Freedom Caucus, but also gave no indication of whether he was in or out of the group.
“In Congress, I serve Northwest Georgia first and do not serve any group in Washington,” Greene said in a statement. “My America First credentials, guided by my Christian faith, are forged in steel, etched in my character, and will never change. . … I will work with ANYONE who wants to secure our border, protect our children in the womb and after they are born, end the endless wars abroad, and get the job done to save this country.”
“The Republican Party has less than two years to show America what a strong, unified Republican-led Congress will do when President Trump wins the White House in 2024,” he continued. “This is my approach, nothing more.”
