Details Behind Surprising McCarthy, Marjorie Taylor Greene Alliance Revealed: ‘I Will Always Take Care of Her’

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A new report out Monday details how Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) managed to win over controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) despite lingering animosity over Greene being removed from her committee assignments in February of 2021.

Greene, who the Hill noted at the time was kicked off her committees for “endorsing conspiracy theories, racist dogma, and violence against Democratic politicians” became a key voice boosting McCarthy’s bid for House speaker in early January – including openly defying and harshly criticizing her hardline colleagues and regular ideological allies.

The New York Times’s Jonathan Swan and Catie Edmondson chronicle the mending of the relationship between Greene and McCarthy from 2021 onward.

The Times’s report even includes some sentimental quotes attributed to McCarthy declaring just how loyal he now is to Greene, who in the past was a 9/11 truther and conspiracy theorist:

‘I will never leave that woman,’ Mr. McCarthy, a California Republican, told the friend, who described the private conversation on the condition of anonymity. ‘I will always take care of her.’

The Times reports that seeds of the newfound partnership grew out of McCarthy ordering his general counsel, Machalagh Carr, to go to bat for Greene with Twitter to get her personal account reinstated after it was banned for Covid-19 misinformation.

The Times’s reported that after the ban, “Instead of telling Ms. Greene that he had no power to order a private company to change its content moderation policies, Mr. McCarthy directed his general counsel, Machalagh Carr, to appeal to Twitter executives. Over the next two months, Ms. Carr would spend hours on the phone with them arguing Ms. Greene’s case, and even helped draft a formal appeal on her behalf.”

The report notes that while McCarthy did not manage to reverse the ban at the time, although Greene retained her official account as a member of Congress, McCarthy’s efforts “impressed” Greene.

The Times adds that McCarthy’s efforts to help Greene battle Twitter were part of a larger strategy, one he crafted after watching former Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan be defeated by the hard-right of the GOP. “It was part of a broader and methodical courtship of the hard right by Mr. McCarthy that included outreach to conservative media figures and Mr. Trump’s hard-line immigration adviser Stephen Miller,” wrote the Times.

The thaw truly began, according to the Times, after former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) told Greene about a time he saw McCarthy yell at then-Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) while defending Greene at a party.

“Ms. Greene recalled it as the first time she had heard from somebody she trusted that Mr. McCarthy had defended her, rather than conspired with Democrats to blackball her,” the Times added.

“That conversation had a big impact on me,” she told the Times.

McCarthy would then begin to invite Greene to policy-crafting meetings and Greene would regularly drop by his office for chats. The Times noted McCarthy started to praise Greene in private for her political skill: “‘She knows what she’s doing,’ Mr. McCarthy marveled privately. ‘You’ve got A.O.C. and M.T.G.’”