The Capitol Hill chroniclers at Punchbowl News made a proclamation Monday morning: “The winner of this Congress? Joe Biden.” It’s a remarkable statement, considering Democrats only hold the majority in the Senate. But the “burn it down caucus” in the House GOP has achieved the impossible. They have torched their own congressional majority, leaving themselves a one-seat governing majority in the House of Representatives.
How? Republicans are running for the exits at an alarming clip. Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado left in late March; now Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin is leaving early. “This place just keeps going downhill, and I don’t need to spend my time here,” Buck said, per The Washington Post. But it’s not the place that’s going downhill; it’s that the Republicans are at all-out war with each other. On Saturday, that war hit a fever pitch, when embattled Speaker Mike Johnson was finally able to pass the $94 billion foreign aid package.
The right-wing media industrial complex is sending a message to Greene loud and clear.
The very next day, the cover of the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post — Donald Trump’s onetime favorite tabloid — read, “NYET, MOSCOW MARJORIE,” and was emblazoned with a picture of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., in a furry gray ushanka. And Monday, the Post published a column from Piers Morgan, the longtime Murdoch editor, calling Greene “Vladimir Putin’s chief ‘useful idiot.’”
“Marjorie Taylor Greene’s position on Ukraine was clearly a bridge too far for Piers Morgan and the New York Post,” said Howard Polskin, who runs conservative media tracker TheRighting. “I was surprised — pleasantly so — that she was dubbed ‘Moscow Marjorie’ in the headline. Hopefully, that moniker will be an indelible stain on her reputation.”
The Post wasn’t alone. Last week, Fox News’ website (which is also owned by Murdoch) published an opinion piece titled “Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot. She is trying to wreck the GOP.” The editorial page of The Wall Street Journal (also owned by Murdoch) blasted “Rep. Mayhem Taylor Greene.” And far-right outlet Newsmax — not owned by Murdoch — ran a piece asking, “Who Put Marjorie Taylor Greene In Charge?”
The right-wing media industrial complex is sending a message to Greene loud and clear: Stop campaigning to oust Johnson. These outlets have no interest in repeating the disarray after Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., triggered the end of then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s speakership last fall. Johnson succeeded McCarthy, in large part thanks to Trump’s backing, but only after an embarrassing 22 days without a speaker.
But Greene seems not to be heeding the message. She went on Steve Bannon’s podcast Monday to repeat her demand for a new speaker. And she wasn’t the only member of Congress being obstreperous. Rep. Thomas Massie, who has backed Greene’s move against Johnson, attacked the speaker and Rep. Andy Barr, Massie’s fellow Kentucky Republican, on social media. In South Carolina, Illinois, Texas and Virginia, Republicans are campaigning against other GOP incumbents in primaries. This is not how members of the same caucus are supposed to behave, especially during a campaign year when Republicans are desperately trying to keep the House and win the presidency.
Whether or not Trump’s intervention makes a difference, the pile of House Republicans’ failures rises higher by the week.
Late Monday, after Greene told Bannon she would continue her quixotic quest, Trump himself — the grand duke of “burn it down” politics — shot the whole idea down. “We have a majority of one, OK?” he told conservative radio host John Fredericks. “It’s not like [Johnson] can go and do whatever he wants to do. I think he’s a very good person. … I think he’s trying very hard.”
Whether or not Trump’s intervention makes a difference, the pile of House Republicans’ failures rises higher by the week. Their attempt to impeach Biden fell apart when their star witness was arrested. Their other impeachment effort, of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, ended with a whimper. And their attempted “Appliance Week” — a series of lame messaging bills about gas stoves and other household items — had to be humiliatingly scrapped. Republicans allowed Trump to pick their speaker, but it turns out he’s about as good at picking speakers as he is at being president. And the beneficiaries are Joe Biden and the Democrats.