House Freedom Caucus

QAnon congresswoman-turned-GOP House leadership darling Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) membership with the House Freedom Caucus has been in question ever since she laid down her life/remaining dignity to back House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in his speakership race. Since then, she’s been picking fights and at odds with members of the rebellious faction for being too tight with the establishment crowd.

While there’s been speculation for weeks that the Georgia congresswoman may soon get the boot from the fringe group, it turns out that the Freedom Caucus has actually already voted to punish Greene for forgetting where she came from.

My colleague Kate Riga and I have been tracking the various ways in which Republicans are freaking out about how their party’s longstanding and extreme positioning on abortion will impact them in coming elections. Kate wrote an excellent piece earlier this week on Republican 2024 candidates’ flailing as they repeatedly and publicly struggle to pick any specific footing on the issue, aware that restrictive policy platforms and abortion bans in general have proven themselves to be wildly unpopular among voters and will likely hurt them in the upcoming presidential general election.

I won’t unpack all the evidence that supports the notion that Republicans are losing the battle of public opinion on abortion here, but to catch up, I’d recommend reading this, this and this.

But, this week, the omnipresent dilemma and intra-party rift appeared in a new venue.