MSNBC Analyst Says Coverage of ‘Kooky Members’ of Congress Like MTG Has Gotten Out of Hand: ‘We Elevate Them So Much’

MSNBC political analyst Brendan Buck claimed that the coverage of “kooky members of Congress” like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) had gotten out of hand on Thursday and argued that they were incentivized to engage in “bad behavior.”

Buck — a political strategist who previously worked for both former House Speaker John Boehner and former House Speaker Paul Ryan — appeared on The ReidOut on Thursday to discuss Greene’s public debate with Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) on the Capitol steps, Wednesday, and her subsequent claim that she felt threatened by congressman.

“I think there’s always been sort of kooky members of Congress, and we certainly have more than we ever have,” said Buck. “But you know, John Boehner, my former boss, referred to his job as being the mayor of Crazytown. There have always been members like that.”

“The problem is we elevate them so much right now. We incentivize bad behavior,” he argued.

Buck claimed Bowman “knew what he was doing” when he got into an argument with the congresswoman and was intentionally “baiting” her, before saying:

She sits there every day and takes the bait the Democrats give her. Nobody can reel her in. And she ends up becoming the face of the party. I don’t think she’s actually reflective of the average House Republican, she’s certainly not. She is an outlier. But there’s no real opportunity to rein her in. There’s no one actually in charge of the Congress. Some of this is the fact that Kevin McCarthy has a very small majority and he has no real opportunity to discipline anybody or to kick anybody out. Look at George Santos, he needs every vote that he can get. It should have been very obvious when Kevin McCarthy made Marjorie Taylor Greene a central part of his effort to get the Speaker’s gavel and he understood that he couldn’t rock the boat at all.

Buck argued that McCarthy with his slight majority had “no real leverage or opportunity to do anything about any of these people and that’s why they’re allowed to go out and do these things every single day.”

“They are a stain on the brand of the Republican Party, but nobody’s really in charge of the Republican Party anymore, and so we continue this cycle. Everyone gets rewarded,” Buck concluded. “It works out well for Marjorie Taylor Greene. She gets the attention she wants, she raises all the money she wants, and the rest of the party suffers the damage.”

Greene and Bowman ended up in an argument on Wednesday after Bowman and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) heckled Rep. George Santos (R-NY) and shouted at him to resign following a failed attempt by House Democrats to expel the congressman.

During the argument, Bowman told Greene, “Expel him. Save the party. You’re party’s hanging by a thread!” while Greene shot back, “We gotta get rid of Biden. Save the country!”

The argument ended after Ocasio-Cortez tapped Bowman on the shoulder and said, “She ain’t worth it, bro.”

Following the argument, Greene claimed she had felt “threatened” by Bowman and that he had a “history of aggression.”

“I think there’s a lot of concern about Jamaal Bowman, and I am concerned about it,” she said. “I feel threatened by him… He’s someone people should watch.”

Bowman, in turn, called Greene’s comments “incredibly dangerous and incredibly reckless” and accused the congresswoman of “using a bullhorn to put a target on my back.”

Watch above via MSNBC.