How Marjorie Taylor Greene Transformed From McCarthy Critic to Staunch Ally

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who won reelection in the midterm elections last month, has recently been showing support to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and his quest to become House Speaker after previously criticizing him on different occasions.

In a clip from The Jenna Ellis Show, which was posted by PatriotTakes to Twitter on Friday night, Greene admitted that she and other conservatives in the GOP have "gone head-to-head" with the California Republican in primaries, but become united when it comes to a general election.

"We [Republicans] all fight it out in primaries but when it comes to the general [election] we are all in for our Republican candidates in the general," Greene said. "And so I do know for a fact that not only Kevin McCarthy, but many other Republicans that aren't conservative heavily supported financially many America First candidates and donated to their campaigns to help them get across the line."

During the December 1 interview with Ellis, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, Greene urged her fellow Republicans to support McCarthy as "none of the investigations that we want to do can start happening" until they elect a House leader.

"Nothing can happen until we elect a speaker on January 3. And I think it's our job as representatives of the people to get our act together and show the American people that Republicans can lead in the majority and that we're willing to do that," she added.

However, she also clarified in that same interview that she didn't compromise anything with McCarthy to back him, adding "nothing has changed about me and I had no deals I had to make to support Kevin McCarthy."

McCarthy has already been facing backlash from some conservative Republicans, including Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, who doesn't want him to become the next House speaker.

Greene was among Republicans who opposed McCarthy at some point, and while some political experts expected her to back attempts by some GOP members to block him from becoming speaker, she instead called those efforts "risky" and a "bad strategy" for the party and vowed to vote for him.

Joseph Uscinski, a political science professor at the University of Miami and co-author of American Conspiracy Theories, told Newsweek earlier this month that Greene's decision to support top House Republicans is meant to help her have more influence in Congress.

"If she wants to get things done in Congress, she's gonna need people like McCarthy on her side," Uscinski said.

Greene held a completely opposite stance against McCarthy a little over a year ago when she said he doesn't have "full support to be speaker" if Republicans took control of the House majority, which they narrowly achieved last month.

"We know that Kevin McCarthy has a problem in our conference. He doesn't have the full support to be speaker," Greene said while speaking to Gaetz on an episode of his podcast last November.

"He doesn't have the votes that are there, because there's many of us that are very unhappy about the failure to hold Republicans accountable, while conservatives like me, Paul Gosar, and many others just constantly take the abuse by the Democrats," Greene added.

Greene at the time also announced that she would list a set of demands to be met in exchange for her speaker vote, including the removal of GOP Representatives Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming from the House Republican Conference because they are serving on the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, according to CNN.

It is uncertain whether McCarthy would actually move forward to achieve this demand as he resisted the idea before, according to CNN, but he recently vowed to remove some Democrats from the House committees they're serving on, including Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and California Representatives Eric Swalwell and Adam Schiff, if he becomes speaker.

Meanwhile, Greene was recently criticized for changing her views of McCarthy after she has been "outspoken" against him.

"Marjorie had always been outspoken about Kevin McCarthy like I have messages with Marjorie Taylor Greene on my cell phone where she...thinks Kevin McCarthy is so 'stupid' and how she wants me to dig up all the dirt on him and his extramarital affairs so that we can prevent Kevin McCarthy from being [House] speaker," far-right activist Laura Loomer said during an interview on In the Trenches with Teddy Daniels that was posted on Twitter last week by PatriotTakes. However, it's unclear, however, when those text messages were sent from the congresswoman.

Meanwhile, House Republicans recently voted 188-31 by secret ballot to nominate McCarthy for House speaker. But, he still has to secure support from right-wing social conservatives as well as more moderate Republicans representing districts that President Joe Biden won in 2020 in order to become speaker.

Newsweek reached out to Greene's media representative for comment.