Get ready for more Marjorie Taylor Greene in Democratic ads: Following an online ad from Biden that used the Georgia Congresswoman’s own words against her, expect to see more of Greene in ads from her political opponents.
Marjorie Taylor Greene in Focus
Earlier this month, President Biden’s team released an online ad that featured quotes from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
The lines came from a Greene speech at the recent Turning Point USA conference, in which she accused Biden of being a “Democrat Socialist,” and alleged that he plans to expand government similarly to how Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson did during their presidencies.
Greene accused Biden of pushing “the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs, that is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on, and Joe Biden is attempting to complete: socialism,” comparing Biden’s mostly not-enacted Build Back Better agenda to the New Deal and Great Society.
But the Greene speech included accusations of things Biden’s team felt comfortable taking ownership of. That ad included Greene speaking of “programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, labor unions [and] he still is working on it.” That audio was superimposed over footage of Biden speaking, and presiding over groundbreakings and ribbon-cutting of infrastructure projects.
The ad was well-received, and a new report says more is coming.
According to Semafor, Greene is likely to play a “starring role” in Democratic ads.
“Democrats are looking to make the Republican from Georgia one of their chief foils as they attempt to wrestle back control of the House next year, and one major political group is already laying the groundwork to link other GOP members with Greene,” the report said.
The Center for American Progress has released a new metric called the MAGA Scorecard, which measures how often different House Republicans vote with Greene.
“As the analysis below shows, 92 percent of the conference has voted with Rep. Greene more than 90 percent of the time in the 118th Congress through July 14, 2023, underscoring the extent to which Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are voting in lockstep with the MAGA movement,” CAP said in their introduction. They also noted that Republicans used to be more comfortable with denouncing Greene than they are today when she formed a firm alliance with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The leaders of the party, per CAP, vote with Greene the majority of the time, including McCarthy 96 percent of the time.
“Among all House Republicans, 23 represent districts that the Cook Political Report considers competitive for the 2024 cycle. All 23 Republicans in these competitive seats have voted with Rep. Greene 85 percent of the time or more. There are 18 Republicans serving in Biden-won seats, and only one has voted with Rep. Greene less than 85 percent of the time—Rep. Fitzpatrick, as noted above,” CAP said.
It is true that most members of each party vote together the majority of the time, and a large percentage of votes in Congress are uncontroversial and pass with an overwhelming majority.
Per Semafor, Democrats are viewing the GOP embrace of Greene the way Democrats were painted with the “defund the police” brush, and seeking to return fire.
“It certainly had an impact on us when they were painting us as ‘defund the police.’ They were taking the democratic socialist message and applying it to Abigail Spanberger,” Rep. Don Beyer, D-VA. said in the Semafor piece. “We got really hurt.”
Semafor asked Greene herself for her thoughts on the effort.
“I really don’t know what’s extreme about strong borders, strong economy, protecting our kids, caring about America first instead of more foreign wars,” Greene told the outlet this Wednesday. “I can’t imagine what’s extreme about that.”
Also this week, one Democratic Congresswoman introduced a resolution to censure Greene, listing more than 40 of her most controversial statements.
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.
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