Marjorie Taylor Greene jockeys to be Trump’s 2024 running mate: Report
Ryan King
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Firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is reportedly setting her sights on being former President Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024.
A staunch ally of Trump, Greene positioned herself as a power broker during the recent House GOP upheaval over Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the gavel and is widely believed to be on Trump’s short list of contenders to be his pick for vice president.
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“This is no shrinking violet, she’s ambitious — she’s not shy about that, nor should she be,” Steve Bannon contended, per NBC. “She sees herself on the short list for Trump’s VP. Paraphrasing Cokie Roberts, when MTG looks in the mirror, she sees a potential president smiling back,” alluding to a former political reporter for NPR and other media outlets.
During the House Republican brawl over the speakership, Greene backed McCarthy and nudged others in the rightward flank of the Republican caucus to follow suit. At one point, she was pictured nudging holdout Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MO) with her phone that had Trump on the line, accentuating her role as a potential bridge between run-of-the-mill Republicans and the hardliners.
https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1611588828023726081
“She’s both strategic and disciplined — she made a power move, knowing it would run up hard against her most ardent crew,” Bannon added, per NBC. “She was prepared to take the intense heat/hatred short-term for the long-term goal of being a player.”
A second, unnamed source believes her “whole vision is to be vice president,” per NBC. The source also believes she is on Trump’s short list, corroborating a report from the Daily Beast. When Trump launched his 2024 campaign in November of last year, Greene was one of his early backers. He is set to stump in South Carolina this weekend.
Trump selected Mike Pence as a running mate in the 2016 election cycle but has become critical of him in public for Pence’s role in certifying the 2020 election. In the early days of Trump’s administration, Pence managed to avert stoking Trump’s ire amid a revolving door of aides who fell out with the president throughout most of the duration of his presidency. Then came Jan. 6, 2021, when Pence refused Trump’s demands to decertify the election — something Pence insisted he lacked the authority to do.
“Mike Pence had a chance to be great. He had a chance to be, frankly, historic,” Trump told a Christian conservative audience last year. “Mike, and I say it sadly because I like him, but Mike did not have the courage to act.”
Pence has stood by his defiance of Trump on Jan. 6 and is reportedly eyeing a 2024 stint himself, teasing that he believes Republicans will offer someone better than Trump. Meanwhile, Greene has repeated the claims that the 2020 election was rigged, and railed against the treatment of Jan. 6 Capitol rioters facing prosecution for storming the Capitol.
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Now that McCarthy has secured the gavel, Greene has been assigned to two powerful committees, Homeland Security and House Oversight, after having previously been stripped from committee assignments under the prior speaker. She has also become one of the most high-profile members of the House Republican caucus and a top-tier fundraiser on the campaign circuit hauling in over $12.5 million in the 2022 cycle.
The Washington Examiner contacted a Greene spokesperson for comment.