McCarthy says Taylor Greene a 'canary in the coal mine' for Republicans
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said Majorie Taylor Greene’s abrupt resignation is a sign of broader trouble for the GOP next year, given several House Republicans are leaving.
“She’s almost like the canary in the coal mine,” McCarthy told Fox News on Tuesday.
“And this is something inside Congress, they’d better wake up, because they are going to get a lot of people retiring, and they’ve got to focus.”
The GOP still has a slender House majority, and even with Greene’s departure has two votes to spare, but already, 22 House Republicans have said they will retire or forgo re-election next year. This is an above-average number analysts say.
Greene – a three-term representative from Georgia – resigned last Friday following weeks of an escalating public spat with President Trump, over several issues including the release of the Epstein files.
Updated
Welcome
Hello and welcome to our US Politics blog for today. I’m Frances Mao and I’ll take you through the next few hours as lawmakers begin to head off for the Thanksgiving weekend.
The fall-out from President Trump’s attack on six Democrats who released a video urging US troops to defy “illegal orders” continues, after first the Pentagon and then the FBI reportedly launched investigations into the matter.
The two inquiries mark an extraordinary escalation in Trump’s use of federal institutions to go after political opponents, and sitting members of Congress. One of the Democrats who says she’s received questioning from the FBI called it a “scare tactic”.
Meanwhile, GOP veterans continue to weigh in on MAGA loyalist turned rebel Marjorie Taylor Greene’s departure – warning that the party’s facing several retirements next year that could leave it vulnerable ahead of the midterms.
And Russian officials have just confirmed that Steve Witkoff will return to Moscow next week to pursue a peace deal on the Ukraine war, after negotiations this week with the Ukrainian sides showed some progress.
