GOP Leaders Knew QAnon Rep Would Be A Mess For Party. But They Just Went ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 03: U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wears a "Trump Won" face mask as she arrives on the floor of the House to take the oath office on the year's opening session on January 3, 2021 in... WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 03: U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wears a "Trump Won" face mask as she arrives on the floor of the House to take the oath office on the year's opening session on January 3, 2021 in Washington, DC. Both chambers are holding rare Sunday sessions to open the new Congress as the Constitution requires. (Photo by Erin Scott-Pool/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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House Republican leaders were well aware of the risks posed by QAnon supporter Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) last summer, but ultimately opted to do little to stop her, according to an Axios report detailing previously unreported at length discussions about her potential threat before she was elected.

The report comes as the newly-elected congresswoman faces backlash over reports of incendiary rhetoric over school shootings, including referring to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting as a “false-flag” operation and heckling survivors of the shooting in a video that went viral this week. Greene had also endorsed comments that some Democratic lawmakers should be executed, according to a CNN report earlier this week.

Axios sources described a series of conversations in which former Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC), Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) all expressed concerns about Greene. But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and others ultimately did little to stop her.

Since her arrival on Capitol Hill, McCarthy has continued to do little to reel in the GOP freshman who was lavishly praised by former President Trump when she won her GOP primary in August. According to Axios, Greene’s former primary runoff opponent, John Cowan, detailed separate conversations he had with McCarthy and Scalise, in which both men acknowledged Greene was a serious problem for the party.

During a July phone conversation, Cowan said that he had warned McCarthy about intensely damaging opposition research his campaign had dug up on Greene, and told McCarthy outright that Greene was “bad for the party.” 

But even as McCarthy condemned racist and Islamophobic comments that surfaced about Greene over the summer, he stopped short of endorsing her opposition.

An effort by Scalise to endorse and fundraise for Cowan’s campaign fell short of the support Greene had won, presumably in light of Trump’s shining review of her.

“Everybody was well aware of her previous persona and who she is. I would say they all knew she was going to be a problem,” Cowan told Axios.

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for marknc marknc says:

    " GOP Leaders Privately Discussed QAnon Rep’s Risks To Party"

    That is the perfect headline. In a decent world it would read: GOP Leaders Privately Discussed QAnon Rep’s Risks To this COUNTRY. But it correctly points out that Republicans only care about how it might damage Republican.

  2. Avatar for quickq quickq says:

    Vote Cheney out of leadership, replace her with MTG.

  3. GOP leaders also discussed the possibility of renting a spine but ultimately decided to continue without one.

  4. Avatar for grack grack says:

    Profiles in Fascist Underknuckling

  5. Avatar for eglot eglot says:

    All I had to do was look at the headline to see what the problem was. GOP Leaders “Privately” Discussed…
    One of the biggest problems the Republicans have is that they have very little people within their party who are willing to stand up for what is proper within their party. You know that deepe down many of them HATED T----- and what he did to their party’s image, but they wouldn’t come out for fear of reprisal from T----- and his rabid Twitter followers.
    Now all of a sudden, Liz Cheney shows something many of them didn’t-- testicles-- and voted against T-----, and is now considered a outlier. Please. Liz Cheney is hardly someone that I would go to for political advice. But at least she had testicles.
    The QAnon Queen will not so much as receive a slap on the wrist because McCarthy, Gaetz, Gym Jordan, Gohmert-Pyle, and all the other GOP cronies either agree with her 100%… or don’t have the balls to stand up to her.

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