The Rep. Lauren Boebert and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene feud has spilled dramatically onto the House floor. According to reporting from The Daily Beast, on Wednesday Boebert moved to introduce an impeachment resolution against President Joe Biden, using a procedural maneuver that undermined Greene, who’d also offered up a different impeachment resolution. Greene proceeded to call Boebert a “b----” on the House floor, reportedly infuriated that Boebert “copied” her impeachment plan. Greene then doubled down on her comments — on the record — in an interview with Semafor.
Both Boebert and Greene want the credit for forcing an impeachment vote against Biden — an impeachment vote that will go nowhere.
So the issue boils down to this: Both Boebert and Greene want the credit for forcing an impeachment vote against Biden — an impeachment vote that will go nowhere, is completely baseless and puts on full display the extent to which the GOP is composed of woefully unserious people. The reason these lawmakers each want to be first is twofold. First, so that they can use the stunt to promote their brands, because why else would Greene and Boebert secure jobs to serve others when they can leverage those jobs to serve themselves? And second, because all of this is ultimately a fundraising ploy.
Whoever gets the resolution on the floor first can then exploit that feat with the inevitable pitch to their supporters: I stood up for you and introduced articles of impeachment against socialist communist Marxist Joe Biden. Help me continue to hold him accountable by donating to my campaign today. The email practically writes itself. This isn’t about getting anything done, it’s about selling a narrative to the marks. So long as Greene and Boebert can squeeze some money out of the suckers on their mailing lists, they’ll have accomplished their goal.
It goes without saying, but if these Republican lawmakers actually cared about the sanctity of the presidency as much as their dueling impeachment resolutions would suggest, they might find at least some fault with former President Donald Trump. They might take issue with the fact that he withheld military assistance to Ukraine as it was contending with imminent threats from Russia, in service of getting dirt on the Biden family. They might take issue with the fact that he couldn’t accept the reality of his 2020 election loss and threw a temper tantrum that helped incite an insurrection.
But no, of course Boebert and Greene don’t find any issue with those things. And in fact, not only were they fine with those things, not only did they vote against both of Trump’s impeachments, and not only do they continue to support him to this day, but they both participated in the activity for which he was impeached. When Cassidy Hutchinson testified in front of the Jan. 6 committee, she revealed that both Boebert and Greene were involved in meetings to figure out “ways that they think the vice president could approach certifying the electoral college votes” in Trump’s favor. So when it comes to impeachments, perhaps Greene and Boebert have squandered their political capital after they quite literally supported Trump’s efforts to commit impeachable offenses himself.
In terms of a Biden impeachment, it’s not going to happen. But the doomed mission to secure one could actually backfire.
In terms of a Biden impeachment, it’s not going to happen. But the doomed mission to secure one could actually backfire — at last for Boebert. The Colorado lawmaker won her last election by just over 500 votes. And while I’m not here to offer any campaign advice, I’d humbly suggest that winning by 0.16% in a heavily Republican district is probably not a mandate to double down on the crazy. Greene has more breathing room electorally. Maybe doubling down will work — for now. But there could come a time when being known as the face of crude, unserious indecorum won’t play so well with the populace. The issue with Marjorie Taylor Greene making herself the face of this new and MAGA-leaning GOP is that now Marjorie Taylor Greene is the face of this new and MAGA-leaning GOP.
So Greene and Boebert will remain at each other’s throats as they both attempt to remake the party in their own images, all the while completely blind to the fact that both of them are at the root of the Republican Party’s biggest failures. And regardless of whoever wins this particular Beltway brawl, it’s the GOP that’s going to lose.