Rep. Greene ousted from Freedom Caucus, board member says

The hard-line House Freedom Caucus has voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from its ranks, according to Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), a caucus board member.

“A vote was taken to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from the House Freedom Caucus for some of the things she’s done,” Harris told Politico and CNN on Thursday.

A spokesperson for the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) would not confirm whether the group voted to remove Greene, pointing to its policy of confidentiality.

“HFC does not comment on membership or internal process,” they said.

In a statement responding to news, Greene did not directly address her membership status in the House Freedom Caucus.

“In Congress, I serve Northwest Georgia first, and serve no group in Washington. My America First credentials, guided by my Christian faith, are forged in steel, seared into my character, and will never change,” she said.

“I fight every single day in the halls of congress against the hate-America Democrats, who are trying to destroy this country. I will work with ANYONE who wants to secure our border, protect our children inside the womb and after they are born, end the forever foreign wars, and do the work to save this country. The GOP has less than two years to show America what a strong, unified Republican-led congress will do when President Trump wins the White House in 2024. This is my focus, nothing else,” Greene concluded.

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Asked if Greene is now formally out of the group, Harris said: “As far as I know, that is the way it is.”

The vote to remove Greene from the group comes after she broke with many of her colleagues on supporting the debt bill deal Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) struck with President Biden. She has become a close ally of McCarthy, supporting him for Speaker even as opposition from many of her Freedom Caucus colleagues forced a historic 15-ballot election in January.

“I think all of that mattered,” Harris said, referring to the debt bill and Greene’s support for McCarthy.

But it was Greene’s latest clash with fellow firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) that appears to have pushed members to vote to remove her, with Harris calling it “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Greene called Boebert a “little bitch” on the House floor in late June — and publicly confirmed doing so — after Boebert made a surprise move to force action on her articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Greene criticized Boebert for not coming to explain her decision to the House GOP conference and accused Boebert of copying her articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.

“I think the way she referred to a fellow member was probably not the way we expect our members to refer to their fellow, especially female, members,” Harris said.

The vote, first reported by Politico last week, took place the morning before the House left for a two-week recess ahead of Independence Day.

Harris would not say how he voted but praised House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) as being a “true leader” and doing a “great job.”

But the move to oust Greene is drawing some outside criticism of Perry and the caucus as a whole.

“If I’m Scott Perry, this is the last thing I want making headlines leading into three weeks of session before the August recess,” a senior Republican aide told The Hill. “All of the continuous drama surrounding HFC has put their members at odds of getting any agenda items passed. It has to be tiring for leadership.”

The most pressing battle between members of the House Freedom Caucus and House GOP leadership is over appropriations and spending levels. Last month, a portion of members from the group and their allies blocked legislative activity on the House floor for a week in protest of topline spending levels set in the debt limit bill.

Members of the group have regularly met with leadership about spending levels in the weeks since, but they left for the two-week break with disagreements remaining.

Beyond the spending levels, members of the Freedom Caucus caused more headaches for leadership with privileged motions to force action on their measures. In addition to Boebert’s move to force action on Mayorkas impeachment articles, which were ultimately referred back to committees, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) forced action on a resolution to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) over his statements about former President Trump.

This story was updated at 5:52 p.m.