Joe Biden takes a rare opportunity to rip Marjorie Taylor Greene: In issuing the first veto of his presidency, President Biden vowed to protect retirement savings “whether Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene likes it or not.”
Joe Biden vs. Marjorie Taylor Greene
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) says outrageous things very frequently, whether it’s on social media or, now that she’s back on committees, in open Congressional hearings.
Greene’s greatest hits have been well-documented.
It’s not often that her political opponents take the bait, but President Biden did precisely that earlier this week.
Per Politico, it happened after Biden vetoed a bill that would have repeated an administration rule safeguarding environment, social, and governance (ESG) investing.
The bill had passed the Republican-controlled House, as well as the Senate, with three Democrats joining the Republicans in voting for it.
Over a video that described the bill as “extreme MAGA limitations on retirement funds,” the president tweeted that “I just vetoed my first bill. This bill would risk your retirement savings by making it illegal to consider risk factors MAGA House Republicans don’t like. Your plan manager should be able to protect your hard-earned savings — whether Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene likes it or not.”
Greene Fires Back
Greene replied to Biden, stating that “No one has put our retirement at risk more than you, Joe. American families can’t count on checks from China to pay their rent and groceries like your family does.” That was a reference to the House Oversight Committee’s attempts to establish that Biden’s relatives received money in a business deal with a Chinese company before Biden became president.
The rule in question came from the Labor Department, allowing retirement plan managers to weigh environmental and social concerns with their investments. The rule did not require them to do so, only to weigh it.
“The rule reflects what successful marketplace investors already know,” the administration said earlier this month. “There is an extensive body of evidence that environmental, social, and governance factors can have material impacts on certain markets, industries, and companies.”
Republican candidates are expected to make hay out of ESG investments once the presidential campaign gets going.
Shocker
Biden’s mention of Greene in a previous speech drew criticism from a surprising place: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In his recent budget speech in Philadelphia, Biden talked about the moment Greene yelled “liar!” at the president during his State of the Union address.
“When those folks were standing up saying, ‘Liar! Liar! Biden’s a liar!’ That gentlelady from the state of Georgia, the mountains there,” Biden said, referring to Greene’s district in Georgia.
“He’s going to raise her a million dollars by mentioning her name,” Pelosi, who retains her seat in Congress after stepping down as speaker, said to a reporter in her Washington office, per the Los Angeles Times. Pelosi has long made a point of not mentioning political adversaries by name when criticizing them.
MTG in the News
Earlier this month, Greene had warned supporters of Donald Trump not to protest in the streets, in the event of an arrest of the ex-president- citing January 6-related conspiracy theories about informants.
Such speculation has been rampant on pro-Trump message boards and forums, per the Daily Beast, of supporters of the former president who said they were worried that in-person street protests could be used as a trap by the FBI.
“We don’t need to protest about the Communists Democrat’s planning to arrest President Trump and the political weaponization of our government and election interference,” Greene said on Twitter earlier this week.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, an ally of Greene, also said at the same time that “I don’t think people should protest this, no,” adding that “and I think President Trump if you talk to him, he doesn’t believe that either,” even as Trump had said the opposite on Truth Social.
As of Thursday morning, no indictment against Trump had been handed down, and the grand jury in New York canceled a planned meeting yesterday.
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Expertise and Experience
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
