Traitor Greene Was Kicked Out Of The "Freedom" Caucus, But Is She About To Become A Big Movie Star?

Writer-Director James DeMonaco Finds Her Embodying Everything That's Wrong In America

Atlantic columnist David Graham was dead wrong about something yesterday. He wrote that Marjorie Traitor Greene “was kicked out of the House Freedom Caucus— for being insufficiently extreme.” From my own discussions with operative directly involved with the caucus, that is not why she was kicked out. The vote June 23 to dump her was “overwhelming.” Basically no one wanted to give her another chance. Everyone is sick of her. And it wasn’t just because she’s become a Kevin McCarthy sycophant— although that’s part of it— because no one is advocating kicking out Gym Jordan, another McCarthy sycophant.

According to Graham, Traitor Greene “was apparently kicked out of the House Freedom Caucus, the hard-right group famous for bedeviling Republican House speakers, in a vote last month… Greene was not ejected for subscribing to QAnon beliefs, or for encouraging violence against colleagues, or for blaming wildfires on Jewish space lasers, or for supporting Vladimir Putin. Instead, [Maryland Rep Andy] Harris said, Greene was punished for tangling with her fellow HFC member Lauren Boebert of Colorado and daring to take a minimal step toward governance by aligning herself with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a conservative Republican. The vote shows just how radical the MAGA fringe in Congress is today— a wild-eyed clique implacably opposed to governance.”

My contact inside the caucus told me that the problem wasn’t that she called Lauren Boebert a “little bitch” but because the conflict quickly escalated into threats of violence between the two armed hot-heads, with Traitor Greene the clear aggressor. Several members on the floor near where Traitor Greene confronted Boebert claimed they were concerned that they could be killed in a cross fire if they two started firing at each other, which seemed possible at the time.

Graham is correct when he reported that “When Greene entered Congress in 2021, she was viewed, correctly, as wacky and toxic. In February of that year, Democrats moved to kick her out of her formal committee assignments after McCarthy hesitated to punish her for offensive remarks. But Greene used the ensuing two years to build her power within the party. She forged an alliance with McCarthy: It saved her from pariahdom and made her a major face of the party, and it gave him credibility (or at least cover) with right-wing members. When his bid for the speakership nearly faltered in January 2023, she was a crucial backer. And when McCarthy needed votes for the debt deal he struck with President Joe Biden in May, Greene was there. But the closeness to McCarthy, whom the right views as an unreliable and moderate speaker, and support for the debt deal was too much for her HFC colleagues to bear, according to Politico’s reporting. The fury over the debt deal is silly. McCarthy never had much leverage to bring against Biden, and he managed to extract more from the White House than many Democrats would have liked. The alternative to the deal he struck wasn’t a better deal— it was a catastrophic national default. Greene’s sin, to HFC members, was insufficient nihilism.”

“Insufficient nihilism” is closer to the mark than anything to do with ideology. Traitor Greene works for Trump. Full stop. She does what his political team tells her to do. Aside from the Jewish space lasers and an instinct for refighting the Civil War, her only politics is Trump— not even Trumpism… just Trump. Basically, once she had her seat, she traded QAnon for Trump.

As for the compromise McCarthy struck with Biden, Traitor Greene was hardly the only “Freedom” Caucus member who went for it. Judiciary Chairman Jordan (OH) and Homeland Security Chairman Green (TN) voted yes, as did Warren Davidson (OH), Mike Johnson (LA), , Greg Murphy (NC) and Troy Nehls (TX). More to the point was paranoia among the members that she was feeding their strategy to McCarthy, probably true, but “Freedom” Caucus strategy is usually available first thing in the morning from Politico and PunchBowl.

One of my most reliable and highly-placed contacts among House Republican staffers told me that many the “Freedom” Caucus members are insanely jealous because she brings in so much small donor money, way more than any of the rest of them. “It just started adding up,” he told me last week. And when it came to a vote, she wasn’t there— as usual— and no one spoke up for her with any conviction… it was n easy vote for most of them, although Mike Collins (R-GA) may have pissed his pants.”

In her own overwrought statement, Traitor Greene said “in Congress, I serve Northwest Georgia first, and serve no group in Washington… My America First credentials, guided by my Christian faith, are forged in steel, seared in my character, and will never change.”

Yesterday, Erick Massoto reported for Collider that Purge writer-director James DeMonaco took some inspiration for his 5th sequel from Traitor Greene. During the interview (below) DeMonaco said that “The Purge 6 will bring a ‘nightmarish version’ of America to life. At the same time, it’s a version that echoes issues that are being presented today and absurd ideas we are forced to gulp down every time we turn on the news or go on social media. DeMonaco said: ‘Purge 6 is my way of looking at the country now. I grew up watching Logan's Run and Soylent Green and John Carpenter and George Romero, whose sociopolitical messaging was within the films. They were smuggling ideas into the film. So for me for 6, I was extrapolating on the discord and taking it to its furthest, as far as you can take that idea of what's going on, I feel, in the country and the political landscape. And it’s a broken America. We’re remapping. [The Purge 6] is about the remapping of America based on ideology, sexuality and religion, so that the states are broken down. You have your Black state, you have your gay state, you have your white evangelical state. And it’s really a broken country.’”

As the interview progressed, DeMonaco went further and commented that he thinks it’s “strange” that people like Republican politician Marjorie Taylor Greene wish modern America would be divided into groups in order to diminish dialogue and conflict. He said: "What's so strange is that Marjorie Taylor Greene— I'm not gonna say more than her name there— recently wished for an America like that, which to me would be the most nightmarish version. It goes against everything that America stands for." DeMonaco explains that he "grew up in New York so the cliche of the melting pot is true, and that's how I'd like to see our country represented, by many faces and different religions and sexualities." Unfortunately, "She doesn't see it that way. So there is part of the body politic that doesn't want that, and that's what Purge 6 is," explains the writer/director. DeMonaco caps it off by saying that his next movie will showcase the chaos of a house divided:

“That's what Purge 6 is. It is this kind of broken America down in this remapping, and then they picked one state that purges still so that’s where it takes place.”