WASHINGTON — A member of the House Freedom Caucus confirmed Wednesday that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has been removed from the conservative group, citing her repeated “attacks” on GOP colleagues.
“She’s not a member of the Freedom Caucus, and she shouldn’t be in the future,” Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., said in an appearance on NBC News’ “Meet the Press NOW” in some of the most definitive comments yet about Greene’s status in the group.
Greene, a fundraising powerhouse with an enormous social media following, has been one of former President Donald Trump’s top defenders on Capitol Hill. She is the first lawmaker to be ousted from the Freedom Caucus since it was started in 2015 by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, then-Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and others.
Other members of the ultraconservative group had said a vote was taken June 23 to eject Greene over her altercation with Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and her vocal support for Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s ultimately successful bid for speaker and his trillion-dollar debt-ceiling deal with President Joe Biden.
But for the past two weeks, there was confusion about her status after Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa., declined to comment about the matter and Greene insisted that no one had informed her that she had been voted out. Some Freedom Caucus members suggested that Greene has been avoiding Perry’s attempts to reach her to deliver the news.
By Wednesday, Perry and Greene still had not personally spoken about the issue, even though they would have been on the House floor together during votes.
“No, I haven’t talked with him about any of that,” Greene said. “I’m mostly focused on the work I’m doing and serving my district, not interested in any drama.”
A spokesman for Greene had no immediate comment about Buck’s remarks. Greene did not attend a Freedom Caucus meeting Tuesday night after lawmakers returned to Washington from the July Fourth recess.
Buck, who is one of the more mild-mannered members of the often rambunctious Freedom Caucus, said Greene’s ouster was about not her political views but her repeated attacks on other members of the group, including her criticism of colleagues for blocking McCarthy, R-Calif., from winning the speaker’s gavel in January.
“She has consistently attacked other members of the Freedom Caucus in an irresponsible way, and as a result of that she was kicked out of the Freedom Caucus,” Buck said, “and she should not be, she should not be a member.
“We have diverse opinions in the Freedom Caucus. It’s not monolithic, but insofar as attacking other members, it just shouldn’t be tolerated over and over again,” he continued. “It’s not one simple attack. It’s not what happened on the floor a few weeks ago with Lauren Boebert. It is a series of really poorly thought-out attacks on other members.”
Scott Wong
Scott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News.
Rebecca Kaplan
Rebecca is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the House.
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