Republican Sen. Thom Tillis accused MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of “dragging our brand down” on Tuesday, ahead of a vote to pass $95.3 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
The North Carolina senator took the jab at Greene (R-Ga.) after the firebrand congresswoman tried to stop the foreign aid package from moving through the House on Saturday.
“She is a total waste of time. She is a horrible leader. She is dragging our brand down,” Tillis said in a recording played live on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
“She — not the Democrats — are the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority,” he added.
Greene has sparked a revolt against House Speaker Mike Johnson for backing the military and humanitarian assistance to Kyiv amid its war with Russia, with two other Republicans now signing onto a motion to vacate their leader.
“The thing about Marjorie that I appreciate is even though you may not like what she’s saying sometimes, she’s saying what the base is saying in large part, and she’ll say things up here [on Capitol Hill] that people don’t want to hear,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), one of the three calling for Johnson to step down.
“But they know they’re hearing when you go back home.”
But Johnson stood up to the threat to his speakership and passed the four-bill aid package with Democratic assistance that includes $60.8 billion for Ukraine to beat back Russian President Vladimir Putin’s incursion.
The rebellion earned her the nickname “Moscow Marjorie” from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and others.
“Moscow Marjorie has reached a new low,” former Colorado GOP Rep. Ken Buck said on CNN the day before the bill passed. “She is just mouthing Russian propaganda.”
“Putin’s Special Envoy to Congress already delivering for Mother Russia,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said afterward.
Greene and other GOP critics have insisted that Johnson backed away from promises to secure the US border before passing the aid bills — and flip-flopped on his past opposition to approving intelligence agencies’ warrantless spying powers.
“Mike Johnson’s speakership is over. He needs to do the right thing to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process. If he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated,” the Georgia congresswoman said this week on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“I’ve been responsible with this the entire time. I support our majority, and I support having our majority in 2025,” she added while refusing to say when she would bring forward her motion to vacate.
Asked on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast last week whether the “Speaker’s office becomes a revolving door” due to her efforts, Greene said, “If that’s exactly what needs to happen, then let it be.”
“But the days are over of the old Republican Party that wants to fund foreign wars and murder people in foreign lands, while they stab the American people in their face,” she told the former Trump White House aide.
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly defended Johnson and even hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month to cool tensions in the House Republican conference.
“Look, we have a majority of one, OK? It’s not like he can go and do whatever he wants to do,” Trump, 77, told host John Fredericks on Monday during an interview on the far-right radio streaming channel Real America’s Voice.
“I think he’s a very good person. You know, he stood very strongly with me on NATO,” Trump also said. “I think he’s trying very hard.”
Other Republicans have noted the marked shift among Trump-allied lawmakers like Greene when speaking about the Ukraine-Russia war, including House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Turner and Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul.
“It is absolutely true we see, directly coming from Russia, attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor,” Turner (R-Ohio) said March 7 on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I think Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base,” McCaul (R-Texas) had told Puck News three days prior.
The Post has reached out to Greene’s office for comment.
