A rift has reportedly started to form in the House Republicans’ class of newly inaugurated lawmakers days after the Capitol siege.
A couple of Republican freshman lawmakers have come out against the president after a group of his supporters breached the Capitol as Congress certified the election for President-elect Joe Biden, while other more ardent supporters of Trump have held firm in their support of him.
South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace got into a heated debate with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, according to Axios. In a group text message with all freshmen GOP lawmakers, Greene sent a link to a National Pulse article reporting that the president’s approval rating had increased in December.
Mace, who disagreed with many members of her own party who objected to the certification, reportedly responded to Greene, saying: “I’m disgusted by what you and other Q-conspiracy theorists did last week in the chamber after all of the violence.” In response, the Georgia lawmaker said she had condemned the violence and told her colleague not to “believe the fake news.”
Greene also mentioned that Black Lives Matter protests got violent as well at times, Axios reported.
“Literal QAnon lady trying to deny she’s a QAnon lady,” Mace responded.
Different members of the freshmen GOP class took sides.
Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan, who has signaled his support for the impeachment effort, came to Mace’s defense, while Burgess Owens of Utah thanked Greene for supporting the president.
“Who is the freshman rep that is betraying everyone’s trust and leaking our group chat to the press?” Greene told Axios, and a representative from her office passed along the same message to the Washington Examiner. Mace’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
More than 130 House Republicans voted against certifying the election results for Biden in Arizona, Pennsylvania, or both states. Many of them cited allegations of fraud that have been promoted by conservatives and the president himself for months, although the president’s legal team had no success in proving those claims in a court of law.
A week after lawmakers voted on certifying the president’s loss to Biden, they’ll be voting on an article of impeachment against the president. A handful of the House Republicans, Liz Cheney, Fred Upton, Adam Kinzinger, and John Katko, have already announced their intention to vote in favor of impeaching Trump.
