GOP Infighting Reaches Fever Pitch As Colleagues Publicly Work to Oust Each Other: ‘Wearing Our Jersey, But Not On The Team’

CNN’s Manu Raju reported over the weekend from Appomattox, Virginia on the effort inside the House GOP to oust one of its own, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), who is the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.

Raju both aired his report on CNN’s Inside Politics Sunday and published an article on CNN.com detailing the various House Republicans openly campaigning in support of Good’s GOP primary opponent, state Sen. John McGuire. Raju noted that campaigning openly against a House colleague is “a tactic long viewed as a serious breach of protocol but one that underscores the bad blood within the House GOP.”

Raju opened his article, writing simply, “Rep. Derrick Van Orden is done with Rep. Bob Good.”

“Bob Good didn’t come here to govern. He came here to be famous,” Van Orden told Raju on camera from the Capitol. “Bob Good’s wearing our jersey, and he’s not on the team.”

“If you look at what we have not been able to accomplish in this Congress, it’s predominantly because of Bob Good and his ilk,” added Van Orden, a conservative Republican from Wisconsin.

Raju joined Good at a campaign stop in Appomattox and pressed the hardliner on Van Orden’s criticism.

“They’ve never heard of Derrick Van Orden. They could care less what Derrick Van Orden thinks,” Good snapped at Raju.

“You come to these things, and you ask questions that nobody here cares about. You bring up Derrick Van Orden, which is a joke,” added Good, who also scolded Raju for asking “stupid” questions.

“RINOs, establishment moderates do nothing to influence Republican primary elections. Conservative, courageous warriors like those endorsing me today and being here with me today are the ones who my constituents care about,” Good concluded, sounding confident that the GOP primary electorate will reward his antics.

Good has been joined on the campaign trail by some of his allies in the hard right of the GOP, including Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ).

“This is the most important primary in the country,” Gaetz told CNN, adding:

Bob is our masthead. Bob Good is our leader among House conservatives to get us on the same page to ensure that it is the people’s interests that rise above the special interests. They know that they hate us. But you know what, there are more of us.

Good, however, has split the pro-MAGA wing of the House GOP as some of the most pro-Trump voices in the House have joined the effort to see him ousted.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) endorsed McGuire and fumed that Good “cannot be trusted and will work against Trump.” Good ruffled a lot of feathers in DC when he voted to remove Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) last year as speaker of the House.

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who served in Trump’s cabinet, has also endorsed McGuire, saying, “We can do a lot better than Good, we can do great.”

McGuire has railed against Good and his tenure of obstruction in Congress, calling him “embarrassing” and his attacks on other Republicans “so childish.”

“I believe that my opponent wants to burn it all down, no solutions kind of guy. I think that we need leaders that want to grow the party and unite our country,” McGuire said of Good, according to CNN.

Watch the full clip above.