Posted on 05/01/2024 9:54:27 AM PDT by RandFan
MICHAEL WHATLEY, the newly installed RNC co-chair, had already briefed Greene’s fellow House Republicans on the importance of party unity that morning, but Greene didn’t show. He delivered his pointed message to her personally: Don’t move against Johnson.
“He said, one, this is not helpful, and two, we want to expand and grow the majority in the House,” said a person familiar with Whatley’s message to Greene. “He was clear that any disruption to the conference on these efforts — including filing this [motion to vacate], does not help the case for party unity.”
In another era, a directive from the top Republican party official certainly would not go unheeded by a House back-bencher. Even in this era, you would think Whatley’s status as DONALD TRUMP’s handpicked RNC steward would mean something to a MAGA acolyte.
But Greene disagreed with Whatley, arguing that the party had time to rebound from a leadership switch before the election. And she admitted she’d spoken to Trump himself earlier in the day — leaving the impression that the former president had told her much the same as Whatley had.
The truth was, Greene had backed herself into a corner, and this morning, she’s facing a potential lose-lose situation: back down and look squishy or stand firm and risk a break with Trump.
At 9 a.m. she’s holding a news conference with fellow Johnson critic THOMAS MASSIE (R-Ky.), and her fellow Republicans are bracing for her to announce a vote on Johnson’s gavel as soon as this afternoon. If so, expect a quick vote to table.
Already her threats have taken a toll on her standing within the House Republican conference, where more and more lawmakers are growing tired of her self-aggrandizing antics, as our colleagues Jordain Carney and Olivia Beavers write.
They note, for instance, that Greene’s latest push comes as the GOP tries to take advantage of the campus unrest to make a messaging push on antisemitism. But, they write, instead of “going on the offense by attacking Democrats for insufficiently condemning pro-Palestinian protests on campuses, Republicans are now bracing for Greene to drag them into another internal fight that most of them would rather delay until after Election Day.”
The bigger issue is that Greene is defying not just her House colleagues, but also Trump and his hand-picked deputy, who made yesterday’s unusual face-to-face appeal.
Whatley told Playbook in a statement that “nothing is more important than party unity and ensuring that we are focused on beating JOE BIDEN and Democrats in November.”
Others in the Trump-aligned orbit are annoyed, to put it mildly, at Greene’s lack of political discipline. Some noted that she’d kept quiet in recent days until House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES and other top Democrats made their backing of Johnson public yesterday morning — suggesting Greene got rope-a-doped into sparking another internecine fight.
“Fresh bait always finds a fish,” one senior GOP official told Playbook. “Jeffries throwing that out there, it’s chum in the water. Everyone knows what he did.”
Trump will be my last vote. I won’t be voting for a single down ballot republican. Never again. Let it burn. That’s the only way we have any chance of righting the ship.
I dont see how caving to them and letting them run the House in all but name is helpful
You have a plan that will guarantee us no speaker Jeffires and thus no court packing, no new blue states, no amnesty, no nationalizing the elections all before the elections?
Great. Let's have it.
Pathetic.
I’ve heard that from a few posters
I don’t blame you
One thought I heard...wait till the election is over.
Good God! How ignorant can a backstabbing POS be?
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Good question - just about the time we figure you couldn;t be any more of an ignorant backstabbing POS, you outdo yourself.
Now go play. Grownups are talking.
Rand, when Trump was elected, I thought it would set in motion the end the GOPe side of the Republican Party. Some eight years later, it appears I was right. In the large picture, this chaos is good news. Things can’t continue the way they are. And the really good news is, the Ds are suffering the same fate as the Rs, with Biden, rather than Trump as the catalyst. College kids are no longer reliable Democrat voters, nor are working class Blacks and Hispanics. Welcome the latter two groups into the MAGA coalition, as the Workers of America unite.
You are assuming the Dems will refuse to certify the election if Trump wins. I’m not buying that. It would start a civil war for sure. And besides the Supreme Court would never allow them to do this. You Johnson apologists are just making up excuses for his betrayal.
Jeffries is practically already speaker
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Sure he is. But you want to make it official. Why?
The phrase: “It’ll get worse before it gets better” applies.
I know you embrace the turmoil as a way of getting rid of these losers.
Some others here are loyalist stalwarts who will vote GOP no matter what.
I think it’s wrong...
Both parties are in trouble with their base because both parties are doing the bidding of their elite donors instead of doing what the people want. It’s all starting to come to a head now.
Says the freak who supports the persecution of Trump or any other dirty deed they can come-up with to get Trump off the ballot. My good, you even supported the state of Colorado saying Trump was guilty of insurrection and should be removed from the ballot. So who is the back stabbing POS? Pretty obvious isn’t it.
As I have said before, you will never get that stink off.
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Not as long as you’re around stinking up this forum with your incessant hatred of DeSantis. Why are you so angry? Trump has come to terms with Rob. Why don’t you?
If I’m wrong on every single issue, then to the point, tell me how me and Trump are wrong on wanting to keep Johnson.
You must be a closet NeverTrumper.
Why on earth does she want to-
Take attention off the protests
Take attention off what is being done to Trump
Take Republican candidates away from trying to get reelected
Disrupt committee work on the Biden crime family
End up with weeks of chaos while a new speaker is trying to get elected
She should just stand on the top of the steps screaming ME ME ME I’M THE ONLY ONE WHO COUNTS
100% jim.
They will lose a few muslim votes here, but that is a small part of their radical, far-left, extremist base. They are playing it both ways on what is going on now. It matters only in Michigan.
Except for the muslim vote (a small part) their base is rock solid behind their nut case agenda.
I'm simply seeing things the way Trump sees this. If you disagree with Trump, then say so. Say Trump is a Johnson apologist.
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