Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Thursday said she would vote against any government funding bill unless the House holds a vote to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
Speaking at a local town hall Thursday, Greene placed other conditions on her vote as well, including eliminating funding for Ukraine, withholding funding for “Biden’s weaponization of government,” and eliminating coronavirus-related mandates — which have largely already been rolled back.
Greene said she would require funds to be withheld from special counsel Jack Smith, who has brought two federal indictments against former President Trump, and for Hunter Biden special counsel David Weiss to be fired.
“We have to rein in the FBI,” she added. “I will not vote for money to go towards those things.”
“I will be happy to work with all my colleagues. I will work with the Speaker of the House. I will work with everyone. But I will not fund those things. And I thought it was most important for me to tell you all first, because I work for you,” Greene said to her constituents in a video posted to social media platforms. “And that’s what we have to do.”
The White House quickly fired back Thursday night, describing the Georgia Republican as part of the “hardcore fringe.”
“The last thing the American people deserve is for extreme House members to trigger a government shutdown that hurts our economy, undermines our disaster preparedness, and forces our troops to work without guaranteed pay,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.
“The House Republicans responsible for keeping the government open already made a promise to the American public about government funding, and it would be a shame for them to break their word and fail the country because they caved to the hardcore fringe of their party in prioritizing a baseless impeachment stunt over high stakes needs Americans care about deeply – like fighting fentanyl trafficking, protecting our national security, and funding FEMA,” Bates continued.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has increasingly signaled he is moving toward launching an impeachment inquiry when the House returns in September, but some moderate Republicans remain wary.
At the same time, the deadline to fund the government, Sept. 30, is rapidly approaching, and McCarthy has told House Republicans that he expects to move forward on a short-term stopgap measure in order to avert a government shutdown.
Without support from Democrats, McCarthy can afford to lose only a handful of Republican votes in his narrow majority, and some hard-line conservatives are embracing the possibility of a shutdown as a way to rein in government spending.
Greene’s list of demands follows similar threats from House Freedom Caucus members, who recently said they plan on opposing any stopgap government funding bill that does not include measures related to the border, the Department of Justice and the “woke” policies at the Pentagon.