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Republican lawmaker doesn’t mince his words about Marjorie Taylor Greene: ‘She is a total waste of time’

‘She is a horrible leader,’ Mr Tillis said

Graig Graziosi
Wednesday 24 April 2024 17:01 BST
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GOP Senator Thom Tillis says Marjorie Taylor Greene is a ‘total waste of time’

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Republican Senator Thom Tillis called one of his House colleagues a "waste of time”, a bad leader, and a threat to the future of the GOP, according to a recent report.

CNN’s Erin Burnett played an audio recording of the senator trashing Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene during her show on Tuesday.

“I think she’s uninformed, she is a total waste of time,” Mr Tillis says on the recording. “She is a horrible leader. She is dragging our brand down. She – not the Democrats – [is] the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority.”

Ms Greene has frustrated some members of her party by crusading against Mike Johnson, the current speaker of the House. Mr Johnson was installed after Congressman Matt Gaetz led a successful, though extremely unpopular campaign to remove Kevin McCarthy, then-speaker of the House.

Mr Gaetz reportedly moved to have Mr McCarthy replaced because the former speaker agreed with Democrats to pass a vote that would keep the government operating.

Traditional Republicans were furious with the Maga-world revolt, and the House became an embarrassing symbol of division and chaos as the GOP scrambled for weeks to find a suitable replacement for Mr McCarthy.

Seemingly following in her congressional colleague's footsteps, Ms Greene has become furious with Mr Johnson for weaponising government shutdowns and for not stonewalling foreign aid bills meant in part to further fund Ukraine's defence in the war with Russia.

She wrote on the day of the vote that “Speaker Johnson proved today that the only border he cares about is Ukraine’s”.

“Johnson once again passed a bill with the help of Democrats while the majority of the Republican majority voted against it,” Ms Greene wrote. “Not only is Mike Johnson a traitor to our conference, he’s a traitor to our country.”

While Republicans projected an air of unity during Mr Gaetz’s campaign against Mr McCarthy, it appears Mr Tillis is willing to publicly state his distaste and disdain for Ms Greene. And he is not the only one.

GOP Congressman Marc Molinaro told reporters that Ms Greene's political “theatre” has to “come to an end”, The Hill reports.

Ms Greene is even reportedly testing the patience of her Maga overlord, Donald Trump, according to a recent report.

The criticism, even from within her party, doesn’t seem to bother Ms Greene. She told Mr Trump’s former adviser, Steve Bannon, that the speakership could be a “revolving door” as far as she was concerned.

“If that’s exactly what needs to happen, then let it be,” she added. “But the days are over of the old Republican Party that wants to fund foreign wars and murder people in foreign lands, while they stab the American people in their face.”

She replied to her colleagues’ aversion to holding another speaker race in a post on X/Twitter.

“It’s baffling hearing the establishment complain that it’s too much drama, too hard, and too risky to go through another speaker race," she said. "Meanwhile, Americans are getting kicked in the teeth from the ridiculous drama inflicted on them from pathetic politicians in Washington.”

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