Freshman GOP women turn on one of their own
Is the Fierce Force shrinking already?
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Fierce is a free weekly newsletter about conservative women and politics.
It’s Friday. Time to recap all the conservative women making news this week. And news aplenty was made!
In today’s edition:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R.-GA) is removed from her committee assignments, with three of her fellow GOP freshman women voting against her
Rep. Liz Cheney (R.-WY) gets to keep her GOP leadership post
Rep. Nancy Mace (R.-SC) goes savage on lying liar AOC
— Teri Christoph (Email: fierce@substack.com)
We’re only four weeks into the 117th Congress and I’m already sensing the need to remove some of the freshman GOP ladies from The Fierce Force.
The House voted yesterday on whether to remove GOP freshman firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments. I did a semi-deep dive into MTG in this week’s Fierce Focus. TL;DR: She flirted with some kooky ideas a few years back, while still a private citizen, but has co-sponsored some solid conservative legislation since taking the oath of office.
And she went on the House floor to speak of her regrets. It’s worth a watch.
I’ve been thinking a lot about grace this week — specifically, the need to offer grace to others during this time of great stress and political chaos. That, of course, does not mean turning a blind eye to bad behavior, but merely to acknowledge that we’re human, we make mistakes and sometimes need some space to work things out. And, hopefully, to come out the other side a better person.
Did her fellow Republicans show Rep. Greene some grace in light of her mea culpa? Most did, some didn’t.
Concerningly, three ladies from the freshman GOP class joined with Democrats and voted in favor of removing Greene from her committees. The final vote was 230-199, with the following Republicans choosing not to support their colleague:
Rep. Fitzpatrick-PA
Rep. Gimenez-FL
Rep. Jacobs-NY
Rep. Katko-NY
Rep. Young Kim-CA
Rep. Kinzinger-IL
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis-NY
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar-FL
Rep. Smith-NJ
Rep. Upton-MI
Rep. Diaz-Balart-FL
I’ve bolded the names of the three ladies in question. Young Kim was already on my radar as someone who’s been far too quiet since arriving in DC. Maria Elvira Salazar was somewhat of a surprise, as she’s been very outspoken about US relations with Cuba and has promised, like President Trump before her, to donate her federal salary to charity. But she’s from Florida and some of MTG’s questionable comments involved the Parkland school shooting, so she probably made a politically expedient decision. And Nicole Malliotakis has been willing to take on AOC and Andrew Cuomo, so seeing her align with Democrats is disappointing.
It’s important to note that Rep. Greene is being removed from her committee assignments, but retains her seat in the House of Representatives.
This week also saw a vote by the House Republican Conference on whether or not to keep Rep. Liz Cheney (R.-WY) as conference chair, the third highest ranking position in GOP House leadership. She has been under fire for her vote to impeach former president Donald Trump and insistence that he incited the violence that overtook Capitol Hill on January 6th. The Republican party in her own state reprimanded her for her vote.
But she survived the vote and lives to fight another day. The conservative grassroots will be watching Cheney very closely going forward, so it will be interesting to see if she extends any olive branches.
Of note is the breakdown of GOP votes that went against the two ladies in question:
GOP votes to remove Cheney: 61
GOP votes to remove Greene: 11
This is not great news for Liz Cheney and somewhat better news for Marjorie Taylor Greene.
I’ve been a bit hard on Rep. Nancy Mace (R.-SC) due to her desire to be in front of the news cameras, often to bash her own party, but I’ve got some serious kudos for her this week. The other big story the past 48 hours was drama queen AOC’s comments about how she had to run for her life from insurrectionists on January 6th. As it turns out, Rep. Mace’s office is just a few doors down from AOC’s, and Mace has a far different version of events.
THIS is what we’re here for at Fierce! The media lapdogs will give AOC and her fellow Squad members a pass every time, so a counter-balance was desperately needed. Nancy Mace’s own background is a testament to overcoming serious adversity, including a sexual assault, and shaking off the mantle of victimhood to achieve your goals. The opposite of AOC, who creates victimhood where there is none, thus minimizing the plight of actual assault victims. The NY Post has more:
“When you exaggerate it, or are dishonest about how you represent what happened, it waters down everyone else’s trauma,” Mace added.
And, because Nancy Mace has a little bit of capital built up with the lapdog media, her willingness to take on AOC’s false account of January 6th is a headline maker. Oh, and I am loving this Nancy Mace, too:
Ilhan Omar @IlhanMN
The definition of the “enemy within” is Members who pose a threat to other Members. It’s not a reckless statement. We literally have a member who harassed @RashidaTlaib and I, tried to force us to swear on a Bible and held a gun over our heads in campaign ads. Get it together. https://t.co/DfkoLPMzdLThere are a few other media pieces about Mace to flag: this one that talks about how “Mace radiates authenticity and enthusiasm” and this one that says: “She is a maverick in the John McCain sense.” And it’s not meant as a compliment.
A few other points of interest this week from the Fierce Force. Rep. Ashley Hinson (R.-IA) introduced a bill to require all public schools that got COVID-19 relief money as part of the stimulus package provide at least 50% in-person learning. Unsurprisingly, Democrats rejected it. Gotta keep those teachers unions happy!
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R.-NY), mentioned above for voting to remove Rep. Greene from her committee assignments, is calling on the Department of Justice to investigate New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s an absolute travesty what happened to those poor souls, and it’s great to see a conservative woman leading the call for Cuomo to be investigated.
Gov. Kristi Noem (R.-SD) showed her fundraising prowess by raising $1M in Q4. Will we see a presidential run? Apparently, The New York Times is “deeply worried” about this possibility. And well they should be, as South Dakota was the only state to see a decrease in unemployment in 2020.
Question of the Week
As always, we start with answers to last week’s question: Is there anyone in the GOP leadership — House or Senate — that you trust? If so, please name them. Interestingly, a lot of you chose Democrat Tulsi Gabbard! She’s got some soul searching to do on a few issues, but perhaps a hop across the aisle is in her future? Here’s a smattering of your responses:
“I trust Senator Ted Cruz...and I'd love to see him as president! I also highly respect Rand Paul. He's not afraid of getting his hands duty when it comes to important issues like abortion and this silly impeachment.”
“Trust is a tricky word... I do think Rand Paul displays the most integrity, so that's the closest I could say about a politician. Tulsi Gabbard seems to be demonstrating that as well, even if I may disagree with her on some things.”
“I implicitly trust Senator Ted Cruz. Yes, I am slightly biased as he does represent my home state of Texas, but he has stood by President Trump, despite their early verbal skirmishes. He is a true conservative and a brilliant constitutionalist. He has a wicked sense of humor and is pretty darn good at putting AOC in her place.”
I spent a lot of time this week looking into Marjorie Taylor Greene, so I’m going to stick with that theme for this week’s question:
Do you agree with the House’s decision to remove Rep. Greene from her committee assignments?
Please send your responses to me at fierce@substack.com.
Podcast(s) of the Week
Did you know about the Smart Girl Politics podcast, which I host? Well, it’s a thing!
I put out two episodes this week:
“Getting fierce in 2021”:
And, “The Notorious Marjorie Taylor Greene:”
I’d be thrilled if you listened and subscribed!
Fierce Force in the News
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Halting border wall construction ‘puts everybody at risk further’: Rep. Herrell
Just for Fun
Teri Christoph is the publisher of the Fierce newsletter. She is co-founder of Smart Girl Politics, an online network for women, and can be found on Twitter, Gab and MeWe.
No. She should have felt the waters a bit more, before jumping in full force. But, we need some backbone in Washington and hopefully this hasn't discouraged that backbone.