A New York Post front page on Monday blaring “Nyet, Moscow Marjorie”, its mocked-up picture showing Marjorie Taylor Greene wearing a Soviet cap, was the latest sign of sections of the US right turning on the extremist, pro-Trump Georgia congresswoman over her opposition to military aid for Ukraine.
“The score in Congress is now ‘Jewish space lasers lady 0, common sense 1’,” the Murdoch-owned tabloid said, celebrating the fact that Greene and other “Republican renegades” failed to stop passage of the Ukraine aid on Saturday, though they long delayed it.
“Jewish space lasers” refers to one of the many conspiracy theories Greene has spread since entering national politics, in that case concerning a supposed cause of wildfires.
The aid bill that passed the Republican-led House on Saturday despite opposition from Greene and other GOP rightwingers also funnels military support to Israel and Taiwan.
Greene was defiant, telling Fox News Mike Johnson’s “speakership is over” after he oversaw passage of the aid bill, and calling for the Louisiana Republican, a stringent rightwinger himself, “to do the right thing to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process”.
She again threatened to trigger the motion to remove the speaker that she filed last month – a move that also generated significant criticism in rightwing media circles.
But though 112 members of the House voted no on Ukraine aid, and though Johnson must lead the chamber with only a tiny majority, Greene faces an uphill path to remove him, should Democrats who supported the military aid bill stay ranged on his side in an unusual bipartisan coalition that has emerged in recent weeks after legislative paralysis overcame the House.
On Saturday, Johnson told reporters: “Three of our primary adversaries, Russia, Iran and China, are working together … and they’re a global threat to our prosperity and our security. Their advance threatens the free world, and it demands American leadership.
“If we turn our backs right now the consequences could be devastating. It’s an old military adage, but we would rather send bullets to the conflict overseas than our own boys, our troops.”
In opposing such aid, Greene has widely been seen to be doing the bidding of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president who had strongly opposed more aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russian invaders. However he appeared to soften last week after having dinner with Andrzej Duda, Poland’s right-wing president, in New York after Trump had spent the day in court for jury selection at his criminal trial, with a post on social media that did not directly oppose more US aid for Ukraine.
Poland is very wary about the power of an emboldened neighbor, Russia, to threaten eastern Europe.
Meanwhile, Greene has said she has hopes of being named Trump’s running mate.
But rightwing criticism of Greene and her cohorts in opposing Ukraine aid has been gathering nonetheless.
Last week, before Ukraine aid passed, Fox News itself posted an op-ed column with the stark headline: “Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot. She is trying to wreck the GOP.”
On Friday, Ken Buck – a recently retired conservative congressman who did much to name Greene “Moscow Marjorie” – spoke to CNN.
“Moscow Marjorie has reached a new low,” he said. “You know, during the Russian Revolution, [Vladimir] Lenin talked about American journalists who were writing glowing reports about Russia at the time as ‘useful idiots’.
“And I don’t even think that Marjorie reaches that level of being a useful idiot here. She is just mouthing the Russian propaganda, and really hurting American foreign policy in the process.”
