Washington — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene argued President Trump lacks self-awareness as he continues to hurl insults on the conservative firebrand who was as soon as one in all his fiercest allies in Congress.
“I really am beginning to really feel very sorry for President Trump,” the Georgia Republican informed CBS Information in an interview Wednesday. “It is really a really poor reflection on him that he chooses to discuss me that means.”
Mr. Trump has labeled Greene a “traitor” and a “lunatic,” after she break up from Republican leaders to demand the discharge of information associated to convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein and identified that her occasion lacked a plan to deal with the expiring Reasonably priced Care Act premium tax credit. She has additionally criticized the consequences Mr. Trump’s tariffs and mass deportation efforts are having on U.S. companies.
Final month, the president pulled his support from Greene and stated he might again a major problem towards his one-time ally. Every week later, Greene announced she would resign from Congress, citing her falling-out with the president.
The president has continued to lash out at Greene since then. On Monday, after Greene spoke to “60 Minutes,” Mr. Trump called her a “dumb particular person” and saying she “kind of jogs my memory of a Rotten Apple.”
Greene informed CBS Information on Wednesday that the president’s name-calling might alienate ladies voters.
“He at all times continues to discuss ladies like this, and that is one thing that ladies all around the nation take note of,” she stated. “I feel the Republican Social gathering must take a tough take a look at it, as a result of the Republican Social gathering has a really tough time with ladies voting for them.”
“It is unlucky that President Trump thinks loyalty is a one-way avenue. It is actually not,” she added. “I do really feel sorry for him, as a result of I feel he is extraordinarily unaware, and I do not know the way he may be unaware about this, however he is not conscious of the way it makes him actually look.”
Greene additionally questioned the president’s obvious dismissal of People’ considerations concerning the state of the financial system. As lawmakers in each events stress the necessity to deal with affordability, Mr. Trump has defended his economic policies and referred to as Democrats’ give attention to the problem a “hoax.” Requested earlier this week to give the economy a letter grade, he responded: “A+++++.”
“The president must be conscious that he is a billionaire president of the USA,” she stated. “You’ll be able to’t gaslight folks and inform them that their payments are inexpensive, and you’ll’t inform them that the financial system is in A+++. You simply cannot do this, and I feel it is insulting to folks’s intelligence.”
“I do imagine right now that Republicans will lose the midterms”
Requested if the problem of affordability might price the GOP its majority subsequent 12 months, the Georgia lawmaker stated she would not imagine the occasion is doing sufficient to embrace a message of financial populism.
“I do imagine right now that Republicans will lose the midterms, and I feel that is unlucky,” Greene stated. “I very a lot needed to be a part of a Republican majority in Congress that solved issues for the American folks, that delivered what we promised to America.”
Greene stated she didn’t give Speaker Mike Johnson a heads up earlier than saying her retirement. Her exit subsequent month leaves the Louisiana Republican with a slimmer margin within the Home.
“This was a private determination between myself and my household, which I had their full help, so I did not assume I owed him that,” she defined. “He simply texted me and requested me to rethink.”
Earlier this month, Johnson informed CBS Information he was “shocked” by Greene’s determination.
“It is no secret she and I’ve had disagreements during the last couple years, however I like Marjorie, I at all times have. I respect her determination, and I want her one of the best,” Johnson stated.
Greene, who once threatened to oust the Speaker, stated she agrees with different feminine colleagues, together with Representatives Elise Stefanik and Nancy Mace, who lately criticized Johnson’s management.
“I feel he has a broader downside with your entire convention as a complete,” Greene defined. “The Republicans have an issue. They are going to have a very exhausting time making an attempt to return to their districts and ask for re-election and new Republican candidates working in different Home seats are going to have a really exhausting time asking for votes when this Congress, this Republican majority right here, has produced hardly something to provide again to the folks.”
President Trump informed reporters Wednesday he nonetheless has confidence within the Speaker to carry his convention collectively.
“I feel Mike Johnson has been a incredible speaker,” Mr. Trump stated. “I’ve had a really exhausting job as a result of, , we now have a small majority, and we acquired the largest invoice within the historical past of our nation authorised, the good, huge lovely invoice.”
“I will imagine it once I see it,” Greene says on launch of Epstein information
Greene’s rift with the president deepened over the discharge of the Jeffrey Epstein information. She was one of many early signers of a bipartisan petition to compel the Justice Division to completely disclose details about the convicted intercourse offender. The Epstein Recordsdata Transparency Act passed in the House and Senate overwhelmingly final month. It orders the DOJ to make the information public inside 30 days, by December 19.
“I will imagine it once I see it, and I actually hope the Trump administration does the precise factor,” she stated. “I feel, if they do not launch all the info, and the ladies are those that can know, I feel that might be an entire break of belief with MAGA.”
“In my coronary heart, I really feel utterly freed of this entire scenario, as a result of if President Trump referred to as me a traitor, over standing with these ladies who had been raped, victimized, trafficked for therefore a few years, and that is one thing the federal government utterly lined up and guarded wealthy, highly effective elites, if that is why President Trump referred to as me a traitor, then I am like, that is high-quality, , I am utterly okay with it,” Greene added.
However she stated dying threats she and her household confronted went too far, and in the end factored into her determination to step down.
“It was the direct dying threats and assassination threats on my son, and that crossed my line,” Greene stated. “It ought to cross anybody’s line, regardless of who we’re, it doesn’t matter what disagreements we now have.”
