OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene took to social media this week to call out 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who lost that year to GOP rival Donald Trump after she insulted his tens of millions of voters.
In a podcast clip posted to her Twitter account, the newly reelected Georgia Republican said: “And your truth had to be banned because your truth was the wrong truth, and this is how this all started. I’ll never forget when Hillary Clinton called everyone supporting Trump ‘deplorables.’
“Wasn’t that a nasty thing for her to do, to declare half of the country basically like we’re kind of subclass? That’s where all this started and how we got treated, and it should have never happened that way,” Greene continued, adding: “She should apologize. Hillary Clinton owes America an apology.”
WATCH:
Marjorie Taylor Greene @mtgreenee says Hillary Clinton owes America an apology for calling Trump supporters "deplorables." pic.twitter.com/mrNneMwZ1B
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) November 22, 2022
Clinton made her remarks at a September 2016 fundraiser, turning heads when she declared, “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.”
Greene is seen as a major ally of former President Trump, and her name has been mentioned as a potential running mate now that he has declared his intention to seek the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
According to Robert Draper, a correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, Trump is seriously eying Greene.
Draper said in an interview with The Daily Beast’s “New Abnormal” podcast “that Greene had risen quickly in her first term in Congress by using the same tactics she honed as a right-wing social media influencer harassing Democratic staffers, and she could shoot to the second-highest office in government,” Raw Story reported.
“Republicans kind of wanted to kick her to the curb immediately,” said Draper, per the outlet. “But instead, she became a fundraising dynamo, came to have this huge social media influence, and ultimately came to be very influential within the party itself.”
Draper went on to say that Trump has been seriously discussing Greene as a potential VP since February, and though he has likely considered others as well, Greene has another quality that may propel her to the top, the report said.
“She has been unflaggingly loyal to Trump throughout,” Draper said. “What is Trump concerned about most of all in a VP after the Mike Pence experience? Loyalty. He knows that if he needs someone to fight for him to overturn a presidential election. He has every reason to expect that Greene would be by his side and would be his proximate warrior.”
Last week, Green began urging Republicans to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland and block the use of taxpayer money for a special counsel Garland recently named to investigate Trump.
Greene called on the GOP to “refuse to appropriate any funding to Merrick Garland’s Special Counsel and defund any part of the DOJ acting on behalf of the Democrat party as a taxpayer-funded campaign arm for the Democrat’s 2024 presidential nominee.”
In a tweet detailing the plan, Greene said that current House Minority Leader and likely next House Speaker Kevin McCarthy would deny funding to the Department of Justice special counsel investigating Trump. Greene said McCarthy would invoke the Holman rule, a procedural measure by which the House may adjust appropriations legislation to reduce the salary of or fire specific government employees. They may also use it to cut specific programs.
“Holman Rule. Look it up! [McCarthy] is going to put it in place,” Greene wrote. “That means no money for Garland’s politically weaponized Special Counsel. Don’t promise too many jobs! Whoops defunded.”
Holman Rule.
Look it up!@GOPLeader is going to put it in place.
That means no money for Garland’s politically weaponized Special Counsel.
Don’t promise too many jobs!
Whoops defunded.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) November 18, 2022
It’s unclear whether Greene was predicting such action or announcing that McCarthy had made the decision to pursue such action.
A report from Playbook detailed:
Attorney General MERRICK GARLAND’s decision to name a special counsel to helm DONALD TRUMP-related probes at the Justice Department roiled the political world on Friday. In an afternoon statement delivered before cameras at Main Justice, Garland argued the appointment of veteran DOJ hand JACK SMITH was necessary given that Trump and JOE BIDEN could be facing off for the presidency in 2024. “Such an appointment underscores the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters,” Garland said.
Some good it did him. On cue, Republicans called foul — and rushed forward to defend an ex-president who had appeared to be losing his grip on the GOP following the party’s disappointing election performance.
