House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) may be the top lawmaker in the chamber, but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) believes he is not really in charge.
During an interview with MSNBC host Jen Psaki, Ocasio-Cortez was asked, “Do you think [McCarthy’s] actually running his caucus? Or do you think someone else is?”
“He’s not,” the congresswoman responded.
She went on, “I think you’ve got Marjorie Taylor Greene running the caucus. And she makes very common, public statements to that effect. Every time something irks her, she communicates that McCarthy is doing her bidding.”
“I think that this is something that is quite clear. I think that Speaker McCarthy is stuck between having to please the most racist and heinous elements of his party with having to maintain a majority, and he’s choosing to side with the extremists,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
Watch the video below:
.@jrpsaki on Kevin McCarthy: “Do you think he’s actually running his caucus?”@AOC: “He’s not. I think you’ve got Marjorie Taylor Greene running the caucus…Every time something irks her, she communicates that McCarthy is doing her bidding.” pic.twitter.com/yUWb8UG33V
— The Briefing with Jen Psaki (@PsakiBriefing) April 23, 2023
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was a key ally of McCarthy while he struggled to win the necessary votes to become speaker.
Ahead of the vote, there were several articles predicting the Georgia congresswoman would hold immense influence in the caucus if McCarthy won the speaker’s gavel.
Former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steel told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in December, “Marjorie Taylor Greene will be the most powerful Speaker of the House because she will have the opportunity to control what comes out of Kevin’s mouth around the things that matter to that small cadre.”
“You call it shadow, I call it the thing. It’s the job, because what you can’t make that separation, when she is — you’re dragging her to your events and propping her up, telling her we’re going to put you back in committee, we’re going to give you a powerful leadership role,” he added.
Meanwhile, former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) told MSNBC, “Look, McCarthy will probably be speaker, but let’s be real — Marjorie Taylor Greene these next two years will be Speaker of the House.”
“She will have McCarthy by the short hairs every single day of the week for the next two years,” he continued.
He added, “McCarthy knows that. All McCarthy wants is to become speaker. So he has to do what Marjorie tells him to do.”
For her part, before the 2022 midterm elections, Greene told The New York Times Magazine that McCarthy would have to give her “a lot of power” if he was going to be the “best Speaker of the House.”
“I think that to be the best Speaker of the House and to please the base, he’s going to give me a lot of power and a lot of leeway,” Greene said. “And if he doesn’t, they’re going to be very unhappy about it. I think that’s the best way to read that.”
She added, “And that’s not in any way a threat at all. I just think that’s reality.”
