AOC Has No Reason To Trust Marjorie Taylor Greene
No, seriously, not a single one.
You might recall that Marjorie Taylor Greene was once, somehow, a sitting member of Congress, and she was terrible. When she wasn’t trying to impeach President Joe Biden and members of his Cabinet, prosecute public health experts, or promote secession, Greene sponsored bigoted, hateful legislation against our most vulnerable citizens. Republican leadership considered her a personal embarrassment but a useful tool so they made every effort to pacify her. Most Democrats viewed her a crass, vulgar nuisance but also like a spoiled child who you hope would grow out of it. (Sorry, they never do.)
Greene’s first official act as a House representative from Georgia was an illegal attempt to overturn the results of the very election that put her office. (The bizarre internal logic was that her election was legit. It was just Biden’s that didn’t count.) Greene was one of Donald Trump’s most loyal lackeys, so of course he betrayed her. I’d green light the screenplay about my former college classmate’s dramatic rise and pathetic fall, but that doesn’t mean Democrats in real life should embrace her, morally or practically. She’s still an awful person.
Greene presents a “big tent debate” for Democrats. After all, “divide and conquer” is a classic principle of war, but stoking the flames of a potential MAGA civil war makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is viewing Greene as an ally, even a temporarily convenient one.
During a recent conversation with political strategist David Axelrod, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained that she had no problem working with Republicans for a common purpose, but she drew a solid line with Greene.
“I personally do not trust someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, a proven bigot and anti-Semite, on the issues of what is good for Gazans and Israelis,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “I don’t! I don’t think that it benefits our movement, in that instance, to align the left with white nationalists. I don’t think it serves us. And so I think it’s about looking at the context, the place, the results, the outcomes, intentions, and where we think that train would go.”
Ocasio-Cortez was criticized by both centrists and her growing list of enemies among the far-left. Journalist Zaid Jilani posted on social media, “[Greene] incinerated her political career to oppose Trump on Epstein and the Middle East. That’s a bigger sacrifice than AOC has ever made on anything. And smart Dems like Ro Khanna worked with her to expose the Epstein files, he didn’t say ew she has cooties like a baby.”
Glenn Greenwald posted a lengthy diatribe on social media that spun Greene as a principled actor and Ocasio-Cortez as a partisan opportunist.
He wrote, “AOC emphatically condemns policies only when Trump and the GOP do them, gets muted and deferential when Dems do. By contrast, MTG criticizes policies with equal fervor regardless of which party does them.”
This is what serious political analysts would call a “blatant lie.” Greene was a Trump-obsessed MAGA cultist until her recent break over Jeffrey Epstein. Whenever she has criticized Republicans, it was because she deemed them insufficiently supportive of the twisted MAGA agenda. Greene smeared the Republicans who voted for Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal as “traitors,” and she defended sharing their contact information on social media even after they received death threats.
Ocasio-Cortez, however, has criticized the Biden administration’s positions on Israel, student loan forgiveness, and immigration. She has consistently held firm to her beliefs but has demonstrated pragmatism when necessary, as she’s not a total loon like Greene. (Watch below.)
Greenwald added, “MTG condemns GOP leaders when they betray their purported values, even risking her political career to do so. By contrast, AOC lies to protect Dems who betray their supposed values (Kamala ‘is working tirelessly for a ceasefire’ in Gaza!), and has supreme devotion to partisan advancement and self-interest above all.”
Ocasio-Cortez did claim in the 2024 Democratic National Convention speech that Harris was “working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and [bring] the hostages home,” but I’m not sure what mind-reading powers Greenwald possesses that would prove this was lie.
Yes, Greene condemned Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson over the Epstein files, but she has a far more extensive record of self-interested partisan advancement. She formed a relationship of political expediency with Short-Term House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and she told New York Magazine that McCarthy would give her "a lot of power and a lot of leeway” or else the MAGA base would be “very unhappy” with him.
“MTG introduced a bill to cut all US financing of Israel’s military,” Greenwald said. “AOC voted NO, arguing Americans should pay for Israel’s ‘defensive weapons.’ Big substantive difference.”
Yes, Ocasio-Cortez is a rational person who understands that the situation in Israel is complicated. Greene is a short-sighted “America First” isolationist who would eagerly see the U.S. abandon Israel. She attacked her Republican colleagues who supported a measure funding Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression: “Mike Johnson’s House of Representatives, so proud to work for Ukraine. Not the American people!!! It’s despicable.”
“MTG scorns the AIPAC/ADL tactic of accusing Israel critics of being racist and ‘anti-Semitic,’” Greenwald wrote. “AOC embraces and fortifies that accusatory smear campaign to justify why only liberal critics like her are compassionate and legitimate and everyone else is just racist.”
This is another delusional lie. Greene, infamous for her Jewish Space Lasers theory, is an anti-Semite. Ocasio-Cortez is a vocal critic of Israel’s war in Gaza and has endorsed/supported leftist Israel critics who have been reflexively smeared as anti-Semitic. Greenwald’s talking nonsense, but his final point is peak nonsense
He wrote, “MTG only cares about results and outcomes, and will thus work with anyone (left or right) to stop a policy she considers evil and wrong.” Maybe Greenwald is talking about an entirely different person with the initials “MTG.” If so, I apologize. However, the actual Marjorie Taylor Greene has only ever promoted policies that are “evil and wrong.” Epstein is perhaps the only exception, the single diamond buried in raw sewage, but there’s no reason to stick your hand in there because there are Democrats like Ocasio-Cortez who offer more than just the one diamond and without the risk of mental dysentery.
“AOC only cares about posturing and her political branding — not outcomes — and will thus reject the opportunity to form majorities to stop stop some policy evil if it means admitting that not only Dems have good ideas and can be good people,” Greenwald said, seemingly oblivious to how Ocasio-Cortez has teamed up with Republicans like Tim Burchett to ban stock trading among Congress members.
Whenever pundits suggest that Ocasio-Cortez should behave like a grown up and forgive Greene, it’s rarely acknowledged that Greene spent most of her thankfully brief political career targeting Ocasio-Cortez with escalating levels of harassment.
Unlike Nancy Mace, for instance, who went after Ocasio-Cortez and later Sarah McBride as a way to “make her MAGA bones,” Greene’s deranged obsession with Ocasio-Cortez pre-dates her own congressional campaign. Back in 2019, she stalked Ocasio-Cortez outside her office like a crazy person — though, the simile is unnecessary as Greene is quite literally a crazy person. (Watch below.)
In September 2020, Greene’s official Facebook page shared a post that showed her posing with an assault rifle next to photos of Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who Greene called “Hate America leftists” who want to “take this country down.”
In May 2021, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rebuked Greene for her increasing “verbal assaults” against Ocasio-Cortez. Greene once followed Ocasio-Cortez out of the House chamber, physically stalking her again and shouting unhinged accusations that Ocasio-Cortez supports terrorists and is a “radical socialist” who doesn’t “care about the American people.”
Ocasio-Cortez is safer with Greene out of Congress, and she perhaps correctly pegged Greene’s motivations last December:
“Marjorie Taylor Greene wanted to run for Senate in Georgia,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “She wanted to run for Senate earlier this year in the state of Georgia, she wanted to be the Republican nominee for Senate. So, she was gearing up for that statewide race, and Trump told her no.”
“Trump said no, and the White House and Trump Land shut down Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal ambitions to run for Senate, and she has been on a revenge tour ever since.”
If Greene’s “roaring rampage of revenge” helps damage Trump, I’m all for it, but there’s no rational reason that Ocasio-Cortez of all people should support the misplaced and frankly disturbing efforts from the left to rehabilitate Greene’s image.
First, a reality check: Glenn Greenwald used to be a functional reporter who, over the past decade or so, has let the brain worms take over. He is an unserious person and can be summarily dismissed as such.
Re: MTG, I don't really see her renouncement of Trump as anything different than a more crass version of never trumpers like Charlie "I love Scott Walker!" Sykes or Rick "let's smear a war hero and multiple amputee for power" Wilson, and progressives slobber all over them. No! None of these people are to be trusted, ever, considering they are big reasons we are where we are today. That the Lincoln Project types do not also bear MTG's burden of stupidity is no reason to carve an exception for them.
Funny how Glennie has "forgotten" that MTG stalked AOC.