Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) received praise from CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer in a rare moment of admiration for the Republican member.
Greene is among a minority of House Republicans who are siding with Senate Democrats on keeping premium tax credits initially drafted under the Affordable Care Act and enhanced under the Biden administration amid the coronavirus pandemic. Despite seven votes so far, the Senate has not been able to pass the stopgap bill that would fund the government.
Greene appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room to clarify that while she will “absolutely support” President Donald Trump, she believed that Trump was getting bad advice on the shutdown.
“I don‘t think it‘s good advice that a government shutdown is going to help Republicans in the midterms. I don‘t agree with that,” Greene said. “I also don‘t think it‘s good advice that Republicans ignoring the health insurance crisis is going to be good for midterms. I actually think that will be very bad for midterms.”
The Georgia representative went on to discuss what she called a “genocide” in Gaza and her efforts to release more documents regarding the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Greene explained how inflation has affected her family and changed her opinion on the subsidies.
“I‘ll go a step further. I‘m a mom. And so when it comes to what is affecting my adult children‘s lives, who are 22, 26, and 28, I‘m going to be 1,000% fighting for them over any politician in any party,” Greene said. “And I can tell you right now that generation, they are barely making it, and they‘re very hopeless for their future.”
Blitzer ended the over 10-minute segment by offering Greene an unexpected compliment.
“You‘re a courageous politician, but more important, a loving mother,” Blitzer said. “Thanks very much for coming in. We hope you’ll come back here in The Situation Room.”
Blitzer’s tone was notably warmer than his previous coverage of Greene. In 2021, Greene opposed the mask mandate on Capitol Hill amid the coronavirus pandemic. Greene compared wearing a mask to “a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens.” Blitzer condemned Greene’s complaint that wearing a mask was akin to the Holocaust.
“And I’m the son of Holocaust survivors, and all four of my grandparents were murdered during the Holocaust, and two of them at Auschwitz,” Blitzer said during a May 2021 episode of The Situation Room.
“And if they would have heard the words this so-called congresswoman uttered, these ugly, ugly comparisons between wearing masks to save yourself and to save others, they would have — they wouldn’t have believed that this was possible in our country,” Blitzer said.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE’S REBELLION: FROM MAGA MEGAPHONE TO ‘RADIOACTIVE’ OUTSIDER
Blitzer questioned why the House didn’t condemn Greene’s “disgusting, deeply offensive comments” at the time. He also did not push back or argue with Anti-Defamation League President Jonathan Greenblatt when he suggested Greene was “deranged” or “demented” during the segment.
The exchange offered a rare moment of civility between Greene and a network that has often been one of her harshest critics — a tone few could have imagined just a few years ago.
