Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene boasts of ‘great’ conversation with Trump amid calls for her ouster

Greene’s apparent conversation with Trump comes at a tumultuous time for the Republican Party, as GOP leaders navigate party infighting over the former President’s role in inciting the deadly US Capitol riot that led to his second impeachment and how his legacy fits with the party’s future.

CNN’s KFile reported earlier this week that Greene — a staunch supporter of Trump and the policies he pushed while in office — had repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before being elected to Congress. The congresswoman has a track record of incendiary rhetoric, including past comments using Islamophobic and anti-Semitic tropes, as well as ties to the baseless and thoroughly debunked QAnon conspiracy theory.

Greene, in one of her tweets Saturday, declared: “I won’t back down. I’ll never apologize. And I’ll always keep fighting for the people.”

She also referenced comments from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a news conference this week in which the Democratic leader said that “the enemy is within the House of Representatives,” referring to the rhetoric and behavior of some Republican members of Congress, including Greene.

“Yes there is an enemy within,” Greene wrote. “And that enemy is a poisonous rot of socialist policies and America last sell outs who are pompous hypocrites that believe they are untouchable elites.”

The congresswoman said she denounced the January 6 violent attack on the Capitol and accused Democrats of trying to “lie and blame” Republicans for the violence.

Greene had helped promote Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election had been riddled with fraud and stolen from him, and on January 6, she joined some of her Republicans colleagues in objecting to counting electoral votes.

House GOP leadership meeting canceled amid party turmoil

McCarthy’s spokesperson told CNN the leadership meeting, slated for Tuesday afternoon, was canceled because the Republican leader will be traveling back from an energy event in Houston. However, he offered no additional details for why it wasn’t rescheduled.

A source familiar told CNN they believed one of the reasons McCarthy canceled the meeting is because he doesn’t want to discuss Greene.

The cancellation of the leadership meeting comes at a critical time for House Republicans.

GOP Sen. Mitt Romney, a frequent Trump critic, reacted to Greene’s announcement of her call with the former President in a tweet of his own, saying that “lies of a feather flock together: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s nonsense and the ‘big lie’ of a stolen election.” Greene swiftly responded to the Utah Republican by accusing him of not caring about people’s concerns.

Democrats demand Greene’s removal

Democratic Rep. Nikema Williams, another member of Georgia’s congressional delegation, told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield on Saturday that it’s time for Greene to be removed from Congress.

“We saw a direct attack on the United States Capitol because of the rhetoric and incitement of violence she continues to do,” said Williams, who’s a co-sponsor of a bill to censure Greene.

Still, expelling a member from Congress requires two-thirds of the chamber to vote to remove that person. Republicans control just under half the seats in the House, and GOP leadership has so far shown no steps toward reprimanding Greene for her comments or previous posts.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.