The House Oversight Committee announced on Nov. 21, that Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will be heading a new subcommittee to work alongside the Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE is headed by Donald Trump’s new propaganda minister Elon Musk and billionaire weirdo Vivek Ramaswamy.
Greene’s ascendance to chairing her own House committee is a perfect encapsulation of the fail-upward mediocrity that the Republican Party and Trump represent. Greene was stripped of her committee assignments in 2021 due to her history of unhinged behavior. After the Republican Party retook a thin majority in the House, in 2023, and in a deal for her support, then-speaker Kevin McCarthy gave Greene committee assignments.
Since that time Greene has done what she’s always done: Embarrass America and the Republican Party with her ignorance and vitriol. But more importantly, she constantly embarrasses herself. Let us count just some of the ways.
1. Greene’s first day back on committee she tries to make Jan. 6 about racism.
Greene returned to committee work in late January 2023. Greene used her special powers of crapitude to try and turn a motion to reestablish the Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties into a racist mess about the Jan. 6 insurrection.
2. Greene makes up a series of facts about “COVID cash.”
In the beginning of February, Greene was back at it, pushing her well-worn and debunked conspiracy theories about COVID-19. During an exchange with Gene L. Dodaro, comptroller general for the Government Accountability Office, Greene ranted about “COVID cash” going to “abortions” and “CRT,” and even claiming that the government gave an Illinois elementary school system $5.1 billion (with a B!) for “equity and diversity.” Dodaro, and the rest of the sentient world was baffled—since none of these things were even remotely true.
3. Greene spews vile anti-trans lies as part of a pandemic conspiracy theory.
Greene put together an incomprehensible performance in March 2023, where she weaved a bile-filled conspiracy theory that COVID, school closures, and social media created trans kids.
4. Greene is forced to shut up (at least for a little while).
Greene was muzzled by the Republican chair of a committee where she attacked Rep. Eric Swalwell ludicrously declaring he had “sexual relationship with a Chinese spy—and everyone knows it” which had to be stricken from the record. Then she called Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas a “liar.” It included this special exchange:
5. Rep. Jasmine Crockett calls Greene a “bleach blond, bad built, butch body” after Greene bates and insults her.
In the same month, Greene earned a righteous shellacking by Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett after Greene attacked Crockett’s appearance during a committee exchange. Crockett told late night host Stephen Colbert the viral insult was inspired by her granny, who “used to call people ‘bad build.’”
6. Greene attempts to use race and abortion to defend white supremacists.
Greene embarrassed herself yet again trying to underplay white supremacist violence as a domestic problem during a committee meeting on domestic threats of violence. Her fatal flaw was in trying to come up with a gotcha question to get Amy Spitalnick, a senior adviser on extremism at Human Rights First and a person with real intelligence.
7. Greene doesn’t realize the FBI and Homeland Security are two different things.
In November of last year, during a heated exchange with FBI Director Christopher Wray, Greene embarrassed herself again by exposing the depth of her civic ignorance, attacking the FBI director for something she claimed the Department of Homeland Security did.
8. Greene hijacks an important pandemic preparedness hearing to threaten Dr. Fauci and spew conspiracy theories.
A week after the 2024 election, Greene was back at it, sidetracking a pandemic preparedness committee hearing to rehash her conspiracy theories and demand Dr. Anthony Fauci and others be “prosecuted” by the “next attorney general” for “crimes against humanity.”
Whether Greene’s subcommittee will mostly act as a propaganda exercise for Musk’s austerity policies, or have a real impact on the government remains to be seen. One thing is for sure: Greene will continue to debase herself and the country in her efforts.
