Rep. Lauren Boebert (r) at a press conference on June 23, 2021, in Washington, DC, alongside Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (l).
Win McNamee/Getty Images
A feud between two former MAGA allies has exposed tensions in the movement.
The GOP far-right is feuding over the House Speaker battle, and Trump’s 2024 campaign.
The poor performance of the GOP in the midterms means former allies now find themselves foes.
This week, tensions between two of the MAGA movements most high-profile figures erupted into a public spat.
At an event earlier this week, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert took a swipe at Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene over her promotion of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, as well as her support for Rep. Kevin McCarthy to become House Speaker.
“I don’t believe in this, just like I don’t believe in Russian space lasers, Jewish space lasers and all of this,” she said, referencing Greene’s past claim that Jewish lasers were responsible for wildfires.
Greene fired back, trolling Boebert on Twitter over the narrow margin of her midterm reelection victory, and said Boebert “childishly threw me under the bus for a cheap sound bite.”
Only months ago the two were close allies and friends. Both were elected to Congress in 2020 as ardent supporters of Donald Trump, and grew their personal brands around political stunts and the promotion of conspiracy theories. They heckled President Joe Biden together during the 2022 State of the Union address.
But the disappointing results for the GOP in the November 8 midterm elections have unleashed a power struggle in the MAGA movement, centering around McCarthy’s bid to become House Speaker.
In the midterms, GOP candidates endorsed by Trump – many embracing fringe views – crashed to defeat in key races. This left the GOP with a much smaller majority in the House than anticipated (222 seats), with the party’s squabbling factions now gaining an outsized influence.
“With the House this closely divided every man is a king and every woman is a queen, and they’re acting like it,” Whit Ayres, a Republican consultant, told Insider.
McCarthy requires 218 votes to secure the House Speaker role he has long coveted, but Republicans are making tough demands in return for their support.
In return for her backing, Greene is reported to have secured an agreement from McCarthy that he will give her high-profile committee assignments if he wins. The then-Democratic majority expelled her from committee roles in 2021 over her promotion of racist conspiracy theories and violent rhetoric.
Boebert and other members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus are taking a different course. They are refusing to back McCarthy’s candidacy unless he agrees to procedural changes that would increase their power to remove him from office.
In essence, it’s a power grab — a bid to secure more influence over the House in return for backing McCarthy.
The midterms have upended the balance of power between the various Republican factions in Congress, said Ayres.
These include the “never Trumpers” who adamantly oppose the former president, the “always Trumpers” such as Greene who idolise him, and “maybe Trumpers,” who’ll vote for him but are repelled by some of his antics and could equally back a rival.
Greene won reelection in November with a solid majority, and apparently sees no reason to significantly deviate from the tactics that have made her one of the most controversial and high-profile members of the MAGA movement.
But many Republicans appear to be hedging their bets, waiting to see which faction dominates in the power struggles over the party’s future.
Among them is Boebert, whose slender margin of victory in November may have underlined the waning appeal of her hardline brand of MAGA politics, and the diminished popularity of Trump himself.
Boebert appears to be playing a waiting game before deciding where to place her allegiances, having not endorsed Trump’s 2024 campaign and expressing admiration for Ron DeSantis, who is believed to be Trump’s main 2024 rival.
In aiming jibes at Greene, Boebert was likely seeking to put some distance between herself and the conspiracy theory-fuelled brand of politics Greene represents.
Ayres said there are now so many variables at play within the Republican Party, including a possible indictment for Trump in the multiple investigations he faces. Predicting the outcome of the power struggles was very difficult at this stage.
“I just don’t know how the MAGA forces are going to to react in the long run,” he said.