GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert are publicly fighting over Kevin McCarthy
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) bid to be the next speaker of the narrowly divided House is imperiled by a handful of Republicans who say they won't vote for him. Allies have started wearing "O.K." buttons — signifying "Only Kevin," not tepid support for his speakership bid — but the Never Kevin caucus has stood firm so far.
McCarthy is holding up committee assignments until after a speaker is elected, presumably as leverage over GOP holdouts, but that has caused its own problematic paralysis for the incoming Republican majority, Politico reports. It has also driven a wedge between two sophomore GOP lawmakers typically seen as allies: Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.).
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Greene wasn't amused.
Boebert "gladly takes our $$$," Greene added, but when asked, "Lauren refuses to endorse President Trump, she refuses to support Kevin McCarthy, and she childishly threw me under the bus for a cheap sound bite."
Greene and Boebert may "look from the outside like MAGA twins," but "inside the House GOP, they're not quite buddy-buddy," Olivia Beavers reported at Politico in April. Privately, Republicans say Boebert "detests being tied to her Georgia colleague" and nearly came to blows with her over Greene's controversial appearance at a February event organized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes. You can read more about the Greene-Boebert relationship, and the larger tensions within the Freedom Caucus, at Politico.
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