With this week’s latest attempt to throw the House into chaos, Marjorie Taylor Greene has once again angered many of her colleagues — but probably not Jen Kiggans.
Kiggans has had no shortage of praise for the Georgia congresswoman, calling Greene “so kind” and “very nice to [her],” and even going as far as to call Greene her “teammate.” Kiggans and Greene have clearly identified each other as allies, with Greene even giving Kiggans’ re-election campaign $2,000 in 2023.
In response to Greene’s latest antics and Kiggans’ prior, effusive praise, her Democratic opponent — Missy Cotter Smasal — has gone on the offensive. In new reporting from the New York Times, Smasal said that “When voters hear [Kiggans’] comments calling Marjorie Taylor Greene a teammate, they are astounded and disgusted.”
When given the opportunity to distance herself from Greene by the New York Times, “A spokeswoman for Ms. Kiggans did not respond to a request for comment.”
DCCC Spokesperson Lauryn Fanguen:
“Missy Cotter Smasal said it best: Jen Kiggans is far too happy to enable the chaos of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greene’s extremism is so far removed from the values of Coastal Virginians that it’s astonishing how freely Kiggans displays her admiration. Voters will remember Kiggans’ constant betrayals when they kick her out of office this November.”
As Republicans and Democrats booed her loudly Wednesday when she called a snap vote on the House floor to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, paused briefly to narrate the drama to viewers back home.
Ms. Greene went on to take her shot at Mr. Johnson and miss, an outcome that she knew was a certainty. The vote to kill her attempt to remove him was an overwhelming 359 to 43 — with all but 39 Democrats joining with Republicans to block her and rescue the G.O.P. speaker.
The move… isolated Ms. Greene on Capitol Hill, putting her back where she was when she arrived in Washington three years ago: a provocateur and subject of derision who appears to revel in causing huge headaches for her colleagues.
If Ms. Greene’s goal in Congress was to chair a powerful committee or to build up political capital to drive major policy initiatives, this all would constitute a major problem for her. But those have never been the incentives that have driven the gentle lady from Georgia, whose congressional career has been defined by delighting her base and stoking anger on the right more than legislative achievement or political pragmatism.
“I’m thrilled with the whole thing,” Ms. Greene said in an interview on Thursday, sounding upbeat after her spectacular defeat. “Even the booing from both sides — I fully expected it. My district is thrilled.”
On Wednesday evening, center-leaning Republicans tried to create as much distance from her as they could, fearful that association with her theatrics would alienate voters in their districts turned off by the seemingly endless chaos in the House.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene, she is so kind,” Representative Jen Kiggans, a vulnerable Republican from Virginia, said at a recent event. “She has been very nice to me.” Of Ms. Greene and other bomb throwers in her party, she said, “I have nothing bad or, you know, different to say about any of these people. They’re on my team, right? They are my teammates. We all want the same things.”
If that’s what abandonment by her party looks like, who needs an embrace?
Democrats, for their part, aren’t willing to let Republicans run away from Ms. Greene, the most famous Republican in the House, so quickly.
Missy Cotter Smasal, a Democrat challenging Ms. Kiggans in coastal Virginia, said that “when voters hear her comments calling Marjorie Taylor Greene a teammate, they are astounded and disgusted.”
Even though Ms. Kiggans voted to kill Ms. Greene’s effort on Wednesday night, Ms. Smasal was using it as a cudgel against her Republican opponent the next day, just as Republicans had tried to warn Ms. Greene when they pressed her to stand down.
“Jen Kiggans in office enables the chaos of Marjorie Taylor Greene,” she said. A spokeswoman for Ms. Kiggans did not respond to a request for comment.
Justin Chermol, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said that “when the Republicans lose their majority in November, it will be because the so-called moderates let Marjorie Taylor Greene be their party mascot.” On Wednesday, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, sent out a fund-raising email detailing how Ms. Greene “threatened to throw Congress further into chaos, crisis and confusion.”
