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- Rep. Kevin McCarthy formed a close friendship with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, the NYT reported.
- It came during the acrimonious battle over McCarthy’s House speaker campaign.
- Previously, McCarthy had been wary of Greene whom he viewed as a liability.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy formed an unexpectedly close friendship with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as she helped him through his acrimonious campaign to become House speaker, a report said.
The New York Times on Monday reported that McCarthy gushed to a friend about the unlikely friendship he had formed with Greene, despite previously clashing with over her political stunts and promotion of conspiracy theories.
“I will never leave that woman,” McCarthy, told the friend, who the Times said declined to be named. “I will always take care of her.”
Greene’s endorsement was important for McCarthy as he struggled to find the 218 votes to be elected speaker. He won the contest only after three days of humiliation in which he was rejected in multiple rounds of votes.
In backing McCarthy, Greene broke with her allies on the hard right of the GOP, including Rep. Lauren Boebert and Rep. Matt Gaetz, who only backed McCarthy after they secured sweeping concessions from him.
McCarthy had cultivated an alliance with Greene after initially viewing her as a liability over her provocations, reported the Times. He believes that having good relations with the hard right of the GOP will be essential during his tenure as Speaker, the report said.
The fight tore apart the GOP for several days, with Republican members of Congress engaging in heated confrontations in the House chamber, and Greene exchanging insults with Boebert.
In return for her loyalty to McCarthy, Greene was rewarded with several influential committee assignments, including Homeland Security Committee and Oversight Committee.
She had been ousted from her committee assignments by Democrats in 2021 over her promotion of violent rhetoric.
