(DailyVantage.com) – In an MSNBC interview on Sunday, squad member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA), not Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), is leading the charge in the House.
When posed a question about House GOP leadership by former Biden White House Secretary Jen Psaki, AOC responded, “I think you’ve got Marjorie Taylor Greene running the caucus”.
“Speaker McCarthy”, AOC continued, “is stuck between having to please the most racist and heinous elements of his party with having to maintain a majority. And he is choosing to side with the extremists.”
AOC was, of course, referring to the infamous 15-round battle for McCarthy’s Speakership back in January. During the multi-day voting process, which has since gone down in the history books as one of the longest contests for electing a House Speaker, McCarthy had no choice but to work with members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus. Members such as Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Bob Good (R-VA), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Lauren Boebert (R-CO), demanded several concessions from McCarthy, including an unprecedented one member vacancy motion.
Eventually, after a long and grueling process, McCarthy prevailed with the Speakership. Many, however, have asserted that the California Republican is now entirely beholden to the uncompromising and ideologically rigid Freedom Caucus cadre.
McCarthy knows full well that, in order to remain Speaker, he must, to some degree, capitulate to this small, ultra conservative group.
Representative Greene, however, was never one of the members to vote against McCarthy’s bid for the Speakership. In fact, this was a point of contention between her and Matt Gaetz, who adamantly opposed McCarthy every step of the way.
Moreover, Greene has become perhaps one of McCarthy’s biggest allies in the House. Thus, it would be more appropriate for AOC to have said that Gaetz, Boebert, and others are running the House GOP, not Greene.
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