The following exchange happened Wednesday on Capitol Hill between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and reporters regarding GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona:
Reporter: Any update on your conversations with Congressman Gosar and Greene?
McCarthy: Yes, I’ve talked to Greene. I’m still waiting to talk to Gosar.
Reporter: And?
McCarthy: I’ve talked to them.
Reporter: But I think you told Jake and Manu [Raju] there’s no place for that?
McCarthy: There isn’t no place for that. There’s no place for what has gone on with that organization by far, and there never will be in this party, and it’ll never be tolerated.
Reporter: Will she go again?
McCarthy: No, she will not go again.
Reporter: Any repercussions for her?
McCarthy: Look, my conversations with my members are exactly that, and I appreciate you asking. … They have the ability to be able to get committees based upon that time when it comes.
At issue is the fact that Greene and Gosar recently addressed a conference organized by a White nationalist.
It’s far from the only transgression either one has committed.
Greene was removed from her House committee assignments last year after a series of intolerant remarks made before she came to Congress came to light. Gosar was formally censured by the House – and removed from his committees – after sharing an anime cartoon video showing him appearing to kill New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attack President Joe Biden. Greene also drew widespread scrutiny last year when she compared mask mandates in the House to the Holocaust.
When Greene commits a transgression like this, McCarthy usually expresses his dismay and meets with her. And then, well, nothing. (McCarthy opposed the vote to remove Greene from her committees, dismissing it as a “partisan power grab.”.)
He appears to be going down that same road again in the wake of the conference appearance by Greene (and Gosar).
If you’ve ever raised a kid – or known anyone whose raised a kid – you know that’s a sure-fire recipe for Greene to just keep acting out.
Let’s say your 9-year-old eats with his hands rather than using utensils. (I know this problem intimately well.) If after each time he does it, you say, “Hey, stop doing that,” but don’t include any sort of punishment or consequence, well, you can be sure he is just going to keep right on doing it. While he probably doesn’t love you telling him to stop eating with his hands, it’s not a significant enough penalty to get him to actually change his behavior.
The same goes for Greene. She is utterly unafraid of McCarthy because she knows he isn’t going to really punish her – almost no matter what she does. McCarthy badly wants to be speaker of the House if Republicans retake the majority this November. And he, rightly, believes that Green, Gosar and their fellow House Freedom Caucus members represent the only real threat to that scenario coming to pass.
McCarthy can’t be speaker with the House Freedom Caucus aligned against him. So he is simply not going to do anything to rock the boat with that decidedly volatile group. Which means the best he can – or will – do is to tell Greene she can’t go to any more White nationalist conferences. Which, well, duh.
What it all means is that Greene will keep acting out and avoiding any real consequences for doing so.
