"Such a fighter": Steve Bannon floats Marjorie Taylor Greene for Homeland Security chief

The lawmaker has courted controversy with her far-right views and promotion of conspiracy theories

By Nicholas Liu

News Fellow

Published November 7, 2024 10:57AM (EST)

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speaks before Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speaks before Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Steve Bannon, the far-right powerbroker who served as a key Donald Trump advisor from 2015 to 2017, has an idea: let Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., take the reins at the Department of Homeland Security.

“You’re such a fighter,” Bannon gushed on his “War Room” podcast early Wednesday. “Now, is there truth to the rumor that you’re going to take over at DHS?”

Greene, who was partying at Mar-a-Lago during the interview, pivoted to Trump's victory and the broad agenda he would carry out as president.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, Steve,” she said. “We’re just thrilled to have President Trump back in the White House because everyone knows what that means. We’re going to dismantle the deep state. We’re going to end the weaponized government. We’re going to pardon the J6ers. That’s extremely important. And we are going to restore peace and prosperity back for the American people. And we’re going to end those foreign wars and we’re going to end the climate change scam. Everything’s going to be restored. We’re so excited.”

Greene, who regularly promotes far-right conspiracy theories, had previously expressed interest in leading the department and executing Trump's stated policy of mass deportations of immigrants and their children, many of whom she characterized as "terrorists." Earlier in 2024, she sponsored a resolution to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the border. The Senate found that he did not reach the standard of committing "high crimes and misdemeanors" and dismissed the charges.

At a House committee hearing last year, Greene called Mayorkas a liar. When Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., defended the DHS secretary, she falsely suggested that the Democratic lawmaker had a sexual relationship with a Chinese spy. Lately, Greene has espoused the theory that Democrats can control extreme weather events like Hurricane Helene.

In her interview with Bannon, who just finished his prison sentence for refusing to testify over the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, Greene suggested the country will now see a counter-revolution.

“America was not going to tolerate the communist regime destroying our freedoms, ripping our borders wide open, trying to turn our kids trans and promoting abortion as reproductive rights,” she said. “America is done with it.”


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