Marjorie Taylor Greene Faces Insurrection From ‘Real MAGA’

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s decision to vote in support of the debt ceiling deal on Wednesday has been harshly criticized by her former ally Steve Bannon, who called on the Georgia Republican to be challenged in the next party’s primary.

In a message posted on the conservative social media platform Gettr on Wednesday night, Bannon called on Greene and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio—who also voted in line with party’s leaders—to “Both Face Primary Challenges from Real MAGA.”

The debt ceiling deal, agreed between President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy after a marathon of negotiations, was easily passed through the House on Wednesday with a 314-to-117 vote.

A bipartisan coalition came together to pass the bill, which was hotly contested by progressive Democrats and Republican hardliners, with the first saying it could not support new work requirements for safety net programs and the second saying it didn’t go far enough to cut federal spending.

The deal, as it stands, would suspend the debt ceiling until January 2025—after the next presidential election—and impose federal spending limits. While the compromise was specifically structured to allow both Republicans and Democrats to claim victories, the deal still displeased some in both parties.

Members of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, spearheaded by chair Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, vowed to “do everything” in their power to sink the deal ahead of the vote. On Wednesday, 71 Republicans voted against the deal struck by their own speaker. Greene, a member of the Freedom Caucus, wasn’t among them.

“I agree with my conservative friends in the Freedom Caucus on some of the flaws in the Fiscal Responsibility Act and I’ve never wanted to raise the debt ceiling on debt that I never voted to create,” she wrote in a long Twitter thread posted on Wednesday.

“But I came to Washington to make changes and this bill actually provides a tool (an idea from @RepThomasMassie) that gives us a chance to make those fiscal changes.”

Her vote in support of the debt ceiling deal marks another rupture between the Georgia Republican and her Freedom Caucus colleagues, with whom she bitterly argued during McCarthy’s House speakership bid.

McCarthy was only elected House Speaker in January after 15 grueling rounds of voting forced on Congress by a days-long revolt from a bloc of Republican hardliners. The Republican defectors were finally convinced to support McCarthy’s bid after a series of negotiations and concessions.

Throughout the election, Greene was a fierce advocate of McCarthy, despite the fact that this led her into a public spat with those who had long been considered among her closest allies within the GOP—Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.

Some of Greene’s supporters also found her backing of McCarthy a betrayal, with Infowars viewers accusing her of being a “fraud”—and forcing her to defend herself by saying she was “still the same person.”

Greene’s loyalty to McCarthy through the process of negotiating the debt ceiling deal, as proven by Bannon’s message, as proven by Bannon’s message, is likely to expose the Georgia Republican to further backlash from extreme MAGA Republicans.

All U.S. House districts, including Greene’s seat—Georgia’s 14th congressional district—will be holding elections in 2024. Greene has held on to her seat for the past couple of years, since first taking office on January 3, 2021.

Newsweek has contacted Greene’s spokesperson for comment by email.