Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for GOP ‘civil war’ after midterms failure

Georgia firebrand says she will ‘lean into’ civil war in the Republican Party

Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is ready unleash a civil war in the Republican Party after its poor showing in the midterms.

The Georgia congresswoman also indicated she would throw her support behind House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in an interview with Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast.

“In order for us to succeed, we’re going to be forced to work together. That means we’re going to fight it out,” Ms Greene said.

“And I’m telling you, I’ve always said I’m not afraid of the civil war in the GOP. I lean into it.”

The GOP appears to be in open revolt after the Republican “red wave” failed to materialise in last week’s midterm elections.

House member Andy Biggs, a member of the GOP’s far-right Freedom Caucus like Ms Greene, is seeking to challenge Mr McCarthy for the leadership, according to reports in Politico.

Marjorie Taylor Greene said she would ‘lean into’ a GOP civil war in an interview on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast (War Room podcast)

Ms Greene said Mr Biggs is one of her “dearest friends”, but it was not the right time to have an internal fight for the party leadership.

“I actually think that’s a bad strategy when we’re looking at having a very razor-thin majority, with potentially 219 (seats), we’re talking about one vote,” she said.

“We have to put someone in for Speaker that is going to be elected, and not allow the Democrats to pull away one or two (votes), because that’s what they want to do,” she said.

“Believe me, they can do it. It can be done.”

Ms Greene also warned that some House Republicans could break away from the party and join Democrats to elect outgoing Congresswoman Liz Cheney to the Speaker’s chair.

“The danger is this, do we want to watch a challenge for Speaker of the House simply because the ‘Never Kevin’ movement — just like we’ve seen a ‘Never Trump” movement — do we want to see that challenge open the door to Nancy Pelosi handing the gavel to Liz Cheney?”

As of Monday afternoon, the Republicans were projected to be on track to have a narrow path to a majority in the House.