Marjorie Taylor Greene Gets Exactly What She Wants for Backing McCarthy

When Democrats were in control of the House, Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene had little sway on public policy, lost her committee assignments and was relegated to the fringes of Congress following comments steeped in anti-Semitism and fringe conspiracy theories that colleagues across the aisle claimed were intended to incite violence against them.

Two years later, the far-right Georgia representative is expected to become one of the most powerful members of her conference, with a key role in helping lead a series of investigations into President Joe Biden and his administration in the upcoming term.

On Tuesday, news broke that leaders of the new Republican majority were likely to name Greene to two key committees—Homeland Security and Oversight—that will afford her significant sway not only over policies around border security and counterterrorism, but investigations into agencies like the CIA and FBI Greene regularly criticized as a member of the minority.

Such appointments would have been unthinkable in a Democratic majority. But while Greene denied cutting a "deal" with new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to be seated on her chosen committees, Greene—a key supporter in his arduous bid for speaker—is getting exactly what she wanted, with wide-ranging power over political fights she long waged as a member of the minority on issues at the U.S.-Mexico border and the surveillance of alleged right-wing extremist groups by federal law enforcement.

It's a recurring trend this Congress. McCarthy has also placed two members who defeated Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump last Congress—Wyoming-based attorney Harriet Hageman and South Carolina's Russell Fry—on the House Judiciary Committee, which could potentially bring articles of impeachment against Biden and other administration officials.

Greene, in a statement, laid out exactly where she hopes to attempt to ply her newfound influence.

"We will return the role of the Oversight Committee to investigating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement of the federal government, which is exactly what the American people are fed up with," she wrote in a statement announcing the assignments. "We will investigate the Biden administration's violations of our laws and fund (and defund) programs to defend our border and American sovereignty. I can't wait to get started and look forward to my assignment being ratified next week by the entire GOP conference."

She has indicated in the past what areas might interest her most.

Greene has pushed leniency for a number of rioters who overtook the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, describing them—like incoming House Oversight Committee member Lauren Boebert had—as "political prisoners," and made comments to the New York Young Republican Club in Manhattan about what would have happened if she had planned the attack.

"If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, we would've been armed," ​Greene said during the December event, comments she later characterized as "sarcastic."

Greene has also pursued questions into the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its vaccine rollout, and has floated investigative audits into the U.S. government's aid to Ukraine amid its war against Russia. That position has appeared to have gathered momentum with Republican members of her conference in the final days of the Democratic majority last month, even earning a pledge from McCarthy to put an end to the signing of "blank checks" to support Ukraine's war effort.

Some, however, have questioned the wisdom of putting Greene on such critical committees given her history of inflammatory and questionable comments.

Prior to her rise to power, she embraced a number of conspiracy theories directly pertaining to her upcoming role on the Homeland Security Committee, including whether a plane actually crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

But Greene also has a documented affiliation with white nationalist organizations that the current administration has deemed a national security threat, including an appearance as featured speaker at a white supremacist event in Orlando as recently as last year, where fellow speakers praised Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin while calling for figures like former Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci to be hanged.

"Here is exhibit 9,387 as to why House Republicans are extreme: they put Marjorie Taylor Greene on the Homeland Security Committee," California Democratic Representative Ted Lieu tweeted after news of Greene's first appointment became public. "She questions whether a 'so called plane' on 9/11 really struck the Pentagon, and spews many other crazy conspiracy theories."

Update 1/17/23, 6:00 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with a statement from Representative Greene.