COLUMBUS, GEORGIA — Firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) may be controversial in Washington, but she came home to a warm welcome at the Georgia GOP state convention.
“I might be known for arguing with Republicans from time to time,” she said to convention delegates at a Saturday breakfast session. “But iron sharpens iron … There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of arguing in the Republican Party.”
Greene had done just that earlier this month, unsuccessfully trying to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). She got into another spat just two days prior to the Georgia speech, participating in a nasty back-and-forth with Democrats in a committee hearing that Johnson described as “regrettable.”
But in a brick-lined ballroom on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, the crowd largely felt she was in the right.
“I love her,” said Joyce Hulsey, a convention delegate who lives in Greene’s district. “She’s fighting for us. She’s a go-getter. I love that she’s fighting for us like President Trump did.”
Hulsey said any controversy in Washington stemming from Greene is because “she’s telling the truth.”
As for the Republicans that Greene spars with? “They’re RINOs.”
Greene largely eschewed the Johnson spat in her speech, speaking only of the importance of arguing generally in order to sharpen the party’s message. Republicans are hoping to make Georgia red again after Democrats won it for the first time since 1992 during the last election cycle.
She did offer plenty of words about the chaotic Oversight Committee hearing to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress.
“We were happy to hold Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress,” she said. “All we wanted was the audio” of President Joe Biden‘s interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur.
But the session devolved into personal attacks and partisan infighting that included name calling between Greene and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
Explaining her actions, Greene said Democrats on the committee spent 45 minutes tearing Trump down “time and time again, and I’m absolutely sick of it.”
Greene spoke of her history in Georgia, saying she saw Athens-based band R.E.M. for $2 in college, and then went into an extended metaphor about her daughter’s high school softball team, which played its state championship games in Columbus.
The team lost their first time out, as did Georgia Republicans in 2020, though Greene was not conciliatory on that point.
“Since 2020, when they stole the election, we became second place,” Greene said. “We became first-place loser.”
But the team came back and won the softball championship in Columbus the next year, as Greene predicted Republicans would in the state later this year.
“We should talk about our border all day, every day,” she said, outlining the issues on which Republicans can win. Greene described the southern border as a “war,” with 5 million known gotaways walking the streets of the United States.
“Are we going to wake up to another Sept. 11?” she said.
Greene said she talks to Trump multiple times a week and that he always asks about Georgia.
There is expected to be plenty of arguing at the convention later in the day, as the Georgia Republican Party faces divisions between those more favorable to Trump and those backing Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA). But any animosity was not present at the day’s first session.
David Weimar, another convention delegate, said he appreciated Greene’s words, and that they reflected the feelings of those gathered in the room.
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“She gets to express what many people do not,” he said.
Greene signed copies of her book, MTG, following the breakfast session.