Greene
Rightwing media mock Marjorie Taylor Greene after
Ukraine aid bill passes
‘Nyet, Moscow Marjorie,’ says New York Post front page
in latest sign some on the right are turning on pro-Trump congresswoman
Martin
Pengelly in Washington
Mon 22 Apr
2024 18.26 CEST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/22/ukraine-aid-marjorie-taylor-greene-new-york-post
A New York
Post front page on Monday blaring “Nyet, Moscow Marjorie”, its mocked-up
picture showing Marjorie Taylor Greene wearing a Soviet cap, was the latest
sign of sections of the US right turning on the extremist, pro-Trump Georgia
congresswoman over her opposition to military aid for Ukraine.
“The score
in Congress is now ‘Jewish space lasers lady 0, common sense 1’,” the
Murdoch-owned tabloid said, celebrating the fact that Greene and other
“Republican renegades” failed to stop passage of the Ukraine aid on Saturday,
though they long delayed it.
“Jewish
space lasers” refers to one of the many conspiracy theories Greene has spread
since entering national politics, in that case concerning a supposed cause of
wildfires.
The aid
bill that passed the Republican-led House on Saturday despite opposition from
Greene and other GOP rightwingers also funnels military support to Israel and
Taiwan.
Greene was
defiant, telling Fox News Mike Johnson’s “speakership is over” after he oversaw
passage of the aid bill, and calling for the Louisiana Republican, a stringent
rightwinger himself, “to do the right thing to resign and allow us to move
forward in a controlled process”.
She again
threatened to trigger the motion to remove the speaker that she filed last
month – a move that also generated significant criticism in rightwing media
circles.
But though
112 members of the House voted no on Ukraine aid, and though Johnson must lead
the chamber with only a tiny majority, Greene faces an uphill path to remove
him, should Democrats who supported the military aid bill stay ranged on his
side in an unusual bipartisan coalition that has emerged in recent weeks after
legislative paralysis overcame the House.
On
Saturday, Johnson told reporters: “Three of our primary adversaries, Russia,
Iran and China, are working together … and they’re a global threat to our
prosperity and our security. Their advance threatens the free world, and it
demands American leadership.
“If we turn
our backs right now the consequences could be devastating. It’s an old military
adage, but we would rather send bullets to the conflict overseas than our own
boys, our troops.”
In opposing
such aid, Greene has widely been seen to be doing the bidding of Donald Trump,
the presumptive Republican nominee for president who had strongly opposed more
aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russian invaders. However he appeared to
soften last week after having dinner with Andrzej Duda, Poland’s far-right
president, in New York after Trump had spent the day in court for jury
selection at his criminal trial, with a post on social media that did not
directly oppose more US aid for Ukraine.
Poland is
very wary about the power of an emboldened neighbor, Russia, to threaten
eastern Europe.
Meanwhile,
Greene has said she has hopes of being named Trump’s running mate.
But
rightwing criticism of Greene and her cohorts in opposing Ukraine aid has been
gathering nonetheless.
Last week,
before Ukraine aid passed, Fox News itself posted an op-ed column with the
stark headline: “Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot. She is trying to wreck the
GOP.”
On Friday,
Ken Buck – a recently retired conservative congressman who did much to name
Greene “Moscow Marjorie” – spoke to CNN.
“Moscow
Marjorie has reached a new low,” he said. “You know, during the Russian
Revolution, [Vladimir] Lenin talked about American journalists who were writing
glowing reports about Russia at the time as ‘useful idiots’.
“And I
don’t even think that Marjorie reaches that level of being a useful idiot here.
She is just mouthing the Russian propaganda, and really hurting American
foreign policy in the process.”
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