{"id":15792,"date":"2025-11-18T16:16:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/epstein-battle-has-ripped-maga-apart-marjorie-taylor-greene-says\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T16:16:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:16:50","slug":"epstein-battle-has-ripped-maga-apart-marjorie-taylor-greene-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/epstein-battle-has-ripped-maga-apart-marjorie-taylor-greene-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Epstein battle \u2018has ripped MAGA apart,\u2019 Marjorie Taylor Greene says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the once steadfast ally of Donald Trump who has since fallen out with the president, said the saga around convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has \u201cripped MAGA apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greene made her comments while flanked by some of Epstein\u2019s victims outside the Capitol Tuesday, just hours before the House is set to vote on a bill that would force the Justice Department to release Epstein case files.<\/p>\n

The White House led an aggressive campaign to pare back Republican support for the effort, but Trump ultimately gave a nod of approval<\/u><\/a> for the measure after Greene and three other Republicans joined Democrats to force it to the House floor.<\/p>\n

Trump, however, has angrily withdrawn his support for Greene \u2014 an early supporter of Trump and his \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d movement \u2014 and called her Marjorie \u201cTraitor\u201d Greene.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been one of the most destructive things to MAGA \u2014 is watching the man that we supported early on, three elections,\u201d oppose the bill, she told reporters. \u201cWatching this actually turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

The back-and-forth battle over releasing the files has certainly driven some Republicans into contortions \u2014 not least of whom is Speaker Mike Johnson.<\/p>\n

He told reporters Tuesday that he plans to vote for the bill authored by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) even as he stood by his longtime claim that it\u2019s \u201crecklessly flawed\u201d because it does not sufficiently protect victims and whistleblowers in his view. He told GOP members in a private conference meeting earlier that morning to vote their \u201cconscience,\u201d according to four people in the room granted anonymity to describe the private meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it could be a near-unanimous vote,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act is the culmination of a monthslong bipartisan effort. Speaking at the news conference, Massie accused Trump of \u201ctrying to protect friends and donors\u201d by opposing the legislation for so long. The victims, meanwhile, shared none of Johnson\u2019s concerns that its passage would threaten their well-being.<\/p>\n

Other members of GOP leadership are also signaling they will vote for the bill. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise confirmed his vote in a brief interview Tuesday morning, and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), the GOP conference chair, issued a statement saying she would also support it.<\/p>\n

Both Johnson and Scalise have suggested the Senate might revise the bill later, but there is likely to be little appetite in the other chamber for prolonged consideration of a measure that most Republicans want to put quickly behind them.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune isn’t expected to announce what the Senate will do until after the House passes the bill, but there’s growing support among Senate Republicans to pass the resolution in the wake of Trump’s shift \u2014 potentially by unanimous consent this week.<\/p>\n

Johnson and Massie continued to snipe at each other<\/u><\/a>, meanwhile, with the speaker saying Tuesday he got the \u201cmiddle finger\u201d from the bill sponsors when GOP leaders asked to make revisions, while Massie said in an interview Monday that Johnson\u2019s \u201cconcerns were never warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he actually wanted the Epstein files released, he could have offered his suggestions four months ago and brought it to the floor,\u201d Massie said. \u201cInstead he \u2026 spread lies about our legislation he now supports because the president told him to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the once steadfast ally of Donald Trump who has since fallen out with the president, said the saga around convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has \u201cripped MAGA apart.\u201d Greene made her comments while flanked by some of Epstein\u2019s victims outside the Capitol Tuesday, just hours before the House is set to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}