16 NEWS Talking points
Re
uters,
GettyMarjorie Taylor Greene: Will the GOP be defined by kooks?
“The GOP’s Marjorie Taylor Greene
problem is spinning out of control,” said
Aaron Blake in The Washington Post.
More than 60 House Democrats backed a
resolution last week demanding the newly
elected Georgia congresswoman’s ouster
from the House after social media posts
emerged from 2018 and 2019 in which
she called for executing Democrats and
FBI agents, and claimed that California
wildfires were ignited by a space “laser”
controlled by Jewish bankers. On one
Facebook post, Greene liked a comment
advocating “a bullet to the head” for
Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi. In
a 40-minute YouTube video from 2018, she questioned whether
a plane actually had crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11—and
accused the Clintons of sabotaging John F. Kennedy Jr.’s doomed
airplane to keep him from competing with Hillary for a U.S. Sen-
ate seat. In another video, she is seen hounding Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School shooting survivor David Hogg outside the
Capitol building, calling him “a coward” and alleging that his
support for gun control was funded by billionaire George Soros.
In other posts, she expressed support for QAnon, said “the stage
is set” for executing Hillary and Barack Obama, and claimed that
the Sandy Hook Elementary School and Las Vegas mass shootings
were “false flag” operations created by liberals to promote gun
control. When confronted with her statements, said Chris Cillizza
in CNN.com, Greene remained defiant, saying that Democrats are
coming after her “because I’m a threat to their goal of socialism.”
But even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed his
disgust. “Loony lies and conspiracy theories are a cancer for the
Republican Party and our country,” McConnell said.
McConnell’s diagnosis comes a little late, said Max Boot in The
Washington Post. Since Donald Trump captured the GOP nomi-
nation in 2016, he and other mainstream Republicans “did not lift
a finger to stop the takeover of their party by the lunatic fringe.”
They tut-tutted Trump’s blatantly racist messages, his “irrational-
ity and authoritarianism,” and his extortionary attempt to get
Ukraine to announce an investigation of the Bidens. Now they
say that while it’s regrettable Trump incited a violent attack on
the Capitol, it’s too late to impeach and convict an ex- president.
By constantly giving Trump a pass for his behavior, Republicans
opened the door to Greene’s “kookiness,” which appeals to a
sizable segment of their Trumpified Fox
News base.Now the GOP is facing “a brewing civil
war,” said Melanie Zanona and Sarah
Ferris in Politico.com. Even as Repub-
licans wrestle over how to confront
the Greene crisis, a “group of hard-line
conservatives” is trying to oust Rep. Liz
Cheney as the House’s No. 3 Republican
in retaliation for her vote to impeach
Trump after the Capitol riot. How the
GOP decides to deal with Greene and
Cheney “could reveal the extent to which
the GOP remains loyal to Trump,” said
Eric Lutz in VanityFair.com. Should Republicans punish Cheney
for her heresy while allowing Greene to get off with a slap on the
wrist, it’ll be clear that Trump still owns the party’s soul.Sadly, Republicans seem more interested in pledging “fealty”
to Trump than in “winning elections,” said Zachary Faria in
WashingtonExaminer.com. Since his narrow, upset win in 2016,
the former president has been a “net detriment” to the party’s
electoral fortunes. Republicans lost 41 House seats in the 2018
midterms, and control of the Senate and the White House in 2020.
If Trump and Greene remain the face of the party, the GOP can
forget winning back control of Congress in 2022 and the White
House in 2024. Tell that to House Minority Leader Kevin McCar-
thy (R-Calif.), said A.B. Stoddard in TheBulwark.com. McCarthy
scurried down to Mar-a-Lago last week to beg Trump’s forgiveness
for blaming him for the Capitol riot—and to proclaim him “the
past, present, and future” of the party. After their meeting, the
lickspittle McCarthy shamelessly tweeted that he and the former
president were “united and ready to win in ’22.”Under pressure to at least strip Greene of a committee assign-
ment, McCarthy has promised only to have “a conversation” with
her, said Marc Caputo in Politico.com. He knows that “Greene
represents an energetic wing of the party”—and one he feels he
can scarcely afford to risk alienating. What a pity, said Kathleen
Parker in The Washington Post. After Trump’s “electoral eviction,”
Republicans had a chance for “redemption and resurrection.”
But instead of repudiating “the dumbing down of conservatism,”
the GOP has surrendered to the demagogues and the crazies. The
Republican Party we once knew “isn’t doomed. It’s dead.”Greene: A font of nonsensical conspiracy theoriesQThe Biden White House is operating
under a strict protocol of coronavirus pre-
cautions, including measures that prevent
more than six people from gathering in
the Oval Office. Masks are required every-
where, many meetings are conducted by
videoconference, and 70 percent of staff-
ers are working primarily from home.
The New York Times
QChild-care problems and school clos-
ings caused Americans to miss more
work in 2020 than ever before—and the
burden fell primarily on women, whoaccounted for 84 percent of the workers
who had to take time off.
USA Today
QNearly 140
police officers
were injured in
the Jan. 6 attack
on the Capitol,
according to the
Capitol Police
union. Officers
suffered brain in-
juries, smashedspinal discs, and cracked ribs, and one is
likely to lose his eye. Two officers have
committed suicide.
NBCNews.com
QFormer Trump administration officials
have faced an uphill fight in searching for
new jobs after the Jan. 6 riot. Fortune
corporations haven’t been offering the
highly paid positions that often go to for-
mer White House officials, fearing those
hires would signal approval of Trump and
the insurrection, recruiters say.
TheHill.comNoted