Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his online "Infowars" show have been highly supportive of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has been a frequent guest on the program. But some "Infowars" viewers, Newsweek reports, are turning against Greene for supporting Rep. Kevin McCarthy during his protracted battle to become House speaker.
McCarthy finally won that battle on Friday night, January 6. In 14 roll-call votes, a group of MAGA lawmakers who were dubbed the "Never Kevin" Republicans repeatedly voted against making McCarthy House speaker. But with the 15th vote, McCarthy finally prevailed.
Greene was never part of the Never Kevin movement. She voted to make McCarthy House speaker 15 times in a row and urged other Republicans to do the same. And some "Infowars" viewers, according to Newsweek, see her alliance with McCarthy as a betrayal of the MAGA movement.
Newsweek's Giulia Carbonaro reports that on Wednesday, January 9, an Infowars caller named Tom said of Greene, "She has a great voting record. But guess what, it doesn't matter when she knows that the policies aren't gonna get through. So, here's the only vote that counts, and that is: she needs to change her vote today, or she's a fraud. OK? And she doesn't deserve to come on 'Infowars' if she doesn't change her vote today cause she's a fraud."
"Infowars" host Owen Shroyer, however, defended Greene, saying, "I disagree with Tom…. I hope that she does come on to either explain why she supports McCarthy or just to give us a little idea of what's going on today…. I'm not ready to throw Marjorie Taylor Greene under the bus at all. She has her reasons for supporting McCarthy."
Another "Infowars" caller implied, without evidence, that Greene was being blackmailed by someone and told Shroyer, "Something happened with Marjorie Taylor Greene…. I don't care about her personal life, but she's got to own whatever it is so they can't hold it over her head."
Those calls, Carbonaro notes, reflect tensions between Greene and "other Republican hardliners" serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, including far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado. Boebert and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida were outspoken participants in the Never Kevin movement.
On January 5, Greene told CNN, "We're on multiple days now with multiple candidates from this group, so I'm not sure how Lauren Boebert, on one hand, can demand so much out of Kevin McCarthy, but then demand nothing out of someone else and then be willing to vote for them to be speaker. That's not serious."
In a different interview, Greene told a group of reporters, "If my friends in the Freedom Caucus, Matt Gaetz and others, will not take the win when they have it, they're proving to the country that they don't care about doing the right thing for America. They're proving to the country that they're just destructionists…. That's why Republicans fail, and I'm really tired of it."
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