Among MAGAts, Who's Worse For America, Steve Bannon Or Marjorie Traitor Greene? Someone Else?

The 118th Congress Will Go Down As One Of The Worst Ever

I don’t get out as much as I used to but I was driving along Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood a couple of days ago when I saw Steve Bannon ambling along. My first thought was to run him over, although that would probably lead to an uncomfortable prison sentence instead of a distinguished service award. Then I thought, ‘and what if it’s just some random homeless person and not even actually Bannon!’ And, I don’t believe in murder. It’s just a primitive instinct we have to sublimate. But then yesterday, I kind of wished I had run him over, even if it would ruined the rest of my life. Why? Well, let me tell you.

I mean aside from all the other stuff about being like the 21st Century Giovanni Gentile or Gabriele D’Annunzio and being the fascist behind “The Movement” uniting far right populists around the world, Bannon was undermining the country again on his popular (with neo-Nazis) War Room podcast. Referring to former FBI heads, Bannon— who still isn’t in prison for some peculiar thing about rich white people not facing accountability— said “Get your passport, get the hell out of the country because hey, we're coming… We will hunt you down... Why is Andrew McCabe, Mr. Tough Guy, Mr. FBI Tough Guy wetting himself on national TV? He's damn scared because he understands the end is near. Don't torture yourself. Your crimes and your treason, Comey, all of you. Go ahead, go to the ends of the earth. We will hunt you down and bring you back and you will stand accountable before the American people.”

Bannon’s real bad, but is he even the worst of the Trumpists? Maybe. Although there’s a lot of competition. Did you know that Moscow Marge and 45 other Putin stooges in Congress voted to withdraw from NATO, Russia’s top foreign policy goal for over 70 years? It was Moscow Marge’s amendment and it lost 46 to 354. 

Like Greene, they’re almost all in safe red districts, where the lack of comprehension among the brainwashed Fox/QAnon MAGA voters is frighteningly palpable. Except… Boebert, who may lose her primary… and Bob Good (R-VA) who also looks like he may lose his— to an extremist even further right than he is, endorsed by Trump and Moscow Marge. And there is one lunatic on this list that could actually be beaten by a Democrat! Former pretend-moderate Brian Mast, who is no longer bothering to pretend. The Democrat taking him on is Thomas Witkop who noted after the vote that “A threat to democracy anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere. It's no coincidence that Brian Mast and other Trump Republicans seek to tear down NATO while attacking Democracy at home in America. After announcing he wants to work in the Trump White House a few weeks ago, Mast has stopped pretending he actually cares about the people of FL-21 and would prefer to please his precious MAGA demagogue.” [You can help Witkop replace Mast here.]

Yesterday, CNN reported that Moscow Marge has been acting out again— like a seven-year old. Melanie Zamora and Annie Grayer wrote Marjorie Traitor Greene’s quasi-constructive role while Kevin McCarthy was stroking her ego and making her feel important has now given way to asocial behavior that has made her an outcaste and “persona non grata inside the House GOP Conference, where there is little patience for her tactics and where some Republicans have even been calling for Greene to face repercussions… ‘This is supposed to be a collaborative body, at least within your own conference, and she doesn’t play nice in the sandbox,’ GOP Rep. Carlos Giménez of Florida told CNN. But Greene is largely embracing her lone-wolf status and feels increasingly emboldened because of the backing she still has from MAGA supporters across the country— including from Trump.”

One of her colleagues told me that she’s putting her eggs all in one basket. “She’s counting on Trump winning and giving her a job in the administration… Don’t laugh but she thinks he’s going to be a cabinet secretary and get confirmed by the Senate.”

The megaphone that comes from her mobilized following, sources say, impacts how her Republican colleagues handle Greene— even when they disagree with her or don’t believe she has much sway, at least within the House GOP.

“They are over her, but they still fear her, because she has an incredible audience and fundraising mechanism and could turn that against you,” a GOP lawmaker told CNN.

…GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska framed the internal debate over how to handle Greene in familial terms: “You can only do so much. I have four kids, eight grandkids. You can’t give all the attention to the one who is not behaving.”

After Greene’s effort to remove Johnson from his job failed spectacularly, Republican leaders are less worried about her disruptive tactics and believe the failed vote exposed just how little following she has inside the House GOP.

But the GOP’s narrow majority gives any single member the power to have at least some sway over the conference’s agenda. Plus, though Trump disagreed with Greene’s effort to depose Johnson as speaker, it doesn’t appear to have impaired her standing in MAGA world. And Greene being untethered to any group dynamics adds to the likelihood that she could prioritize personal vendettas over what the rest of the conference wants.

“She is not part of any group,” one GOP lawmaker said of Greene. “She’s kind of an island unto herself.”

While Johnson has not shown much of an appetite to play by Greene’s rules, he has also made an effort to at least hear her out. Last week, he met with Greene in his office, where she laid out a wish list of actions she wants the speaker to take in the wake of Trump’s conviction.

That includes putting a long-shot and politically dicey resolution on the floor impeaching Biden over problems at the southern border, defunding the special counsel’s criminal investigations into Trump, and even letting government funding lapse— all in response to the former president’s guilty verdict in New York.

“We aren’t a serious country anymore. We’re literally a banana republic. So what does it matter funding the government? The American people don’t give a shit,” Greene told CNN last week after her meeting with Johnson.

…A sweeping response to Trump’s conviction like what Greene has proposed doesn’t sit well with many of her Republican colleagues, even those who support the former president and believe the verdict against him was politically motivated.

“I don’t think that you cure one hasty ill-advised action with another,” GOP Rep. Nick LaLota of New York said of Greene’s proposals. “I think that she feels that the score will be settled if we do something equally as hasty here, and I don’t think that’s how the government should work.”

Johnson, who is under immense pressure from his right flank to go after the Justice Department in response to the Trump verdict and who has warmed to the idea of defunding the special counsel’s investigation, defended his approach as he weighs different options.

“This is not retribution,” Johnson told CNN last week. “This is about trying to reset the parameters and to make the people trust our system again.”