Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene came out swinging against her own party, but this time, she’s doing it live on CNN — a striking choice for the Georgia Republican who built her brand on hardline MAGA politics and rarely strays from the safe haven of conservative media.
In a surprising appearance Thursday on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown, Greene laid the blame for the ongoing government shutdown squarely at the feet of Republican leadership — not Democrats, and certainly not Donald Trump.
“I’m not putting the blame on the president,” Greene said bluntly. “I’m actually putting the blame on the speaker and Leader Thune in the Senate. This should not be happening.”
The federal government is now entering its second week of shutdown after Congress failed to pass a spending bill by the Oct. 1 deadline. Republicans are blaming Democrats for refusing to back a “clean” continuing resolution (CR), but Democrats argue any short-term funding deal should also include an extension of enhanced tax credits under the Affordable Care Act — a sticking point that’s becoming increasingly painful for everyday Americans.
Greene, who has never been a fan of Obamacare, didn’t flip on the law itself. But she made it clear she’s hearing from constituents who are terrified about what happens when those tax credits expire.
“I’m getting phone calls from people that are saying if the ACA tax credits expire, they aren’t going to be able to have health insurance. They’re going to have to drop it,” Greene said.
She also took issue with her party’s lack of a backup plan. “We have no plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING!!!” she posted on X earlier this week. “I’m not towing the party line on this, or playing loyalty games.”
This latest revolt is not just about health care. It’s part of a broader trend that’s seen Greene distance herself from party leadership while still aligning with Trump — albeit not blindly.
“I’m not some sort of blind slave to the president, and I don’t think anyone should be,” Greene told NBC in another recent interview. “I serve in Congress. We’re a separate branch of the government, and I’m not elected by the president . . . I got elected without the president’s endorsement, and, you know, I think that has served me really well.”
She even questioned the political strategy behind Trump’s stance on the shutdown.
“I don’t think it’s good advice that a government shutdown is going to help Republicans in the midterms,” Greene said. “I also don’t think it’s good advice that Republicans ignoring the health insurance crisis is gonna be good for midterms. I actually think that would be very bad for midterms.”
The comment raised eyebrows inside Trump World, with NBC reporting that Trump has recently phoned GOP allies to ask, “What’s going on with Marjorie?”
But Greene isn’t interested in playing team ball if it means backing what she sees as bad policy. She says GOP leaders like Speaker Mike Johnson are fumbling the moment — and she wants them to act.
“We control the House, we control the Senate, we have the White House,” she said on CNN. “I’ve been vocal saying, ‘you know, you can use the nuclear option in the Senate.’ This doesn’t have to be a shutdown.”
So far, Republicans in the Senate have rejected the idea of ending the filibuster, even as negotiations stall. But Greene insists the legislative gridlock isn’t inevitable — it’s the result of cowardice and inertia among those in power.
And she’s not just going after Johnson and Thune. Greene also called out Sen. Ted Cruz, who suggested a controversial Greene tweet implied Israel wanted to kill her. Greene had posted about a foreign government plotting to assassinate her — but Cruz interpreted it as a jab at Israel, due to Greene’s recent criticism of its military campaign in Gaza.
“I never said Jewish people, I’m not anti-Semitic,” Greene said in response. “I don’t hate any people, group for their identity or who they are. So that was unbelievably low for a sitting U.S. senator to say that, but what I’m talking about is very real. I have a tremendous amount of death threats. It’s documented.”
This kind of blunt-force rhetoric isn’t new for Greene, but her choice of platform and targets is shifting. She’s been on a streak of aligning with unlikely allies, especially around issues of government secrecy and executive overreach. She was one of just a few Republicans to back a bipartisan push — with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — to force the release of Jeffrey Epstein investigation files.
“There is a new Democrat that’s been elected that does deserve to be sworn in, her district elected her,” Greene added, referring to Adelita Grijalva, whose delayed swearing-in is stalling the discharge petition on the Epstein bill. “If it’s to avoid the discharge petition, why drag this out?”
It’s just one more example of Greene breaking ranks — not just with her party’s leadership, but increasingly with the MAGA mold she once embodied.
Watch the clip below:
