How Marjorie Taylor Greene landed seats on two key House committees

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene now sits on the House Homeland Security Committee. How she got there and apparently into House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's inner circle is a story in itself. CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more We have to elect Kevin McCarthy.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is taking on a new role in Congress being a team player. And so far this year, she's lining up squarely behind Speaker Kevin McCarthy. If we don't unify behind Kevin McCarthy, we're opening up the door for the Democrats to be able to recruit.

Some of our Republicans The evolution of the Georgia congresswoman has been remarkable to watch or transactional in the eyes of some critics as she took center stage in McCarthy's.

Overtime race for speaker. She worked to win every last vote, even handing her phone with former President Donald Trump on the line to Congressman Matt Rosendale of Montana, who brushed back her arm, twisting a onetime proud Republican rabble rouser. I'm not afraid of the Civil War.

And the GOP, I lean into it now has a seat at the table on two key committees. A new role after a committee assignments were stripped for repeatedly making incendiary comments when Democrats controlled the House. CNN has learned that.

With McCarthy's blessing, she has landed prime seats on the oversight committee that will investigate the president and the Homeland Security Committee with jurisdiction over the border. The panel will lead the charge to probe and potentially move to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

House Republicans are committed and we are altogether going to do something about this problem to secure our border. She's beginning her second term in Congress in a far different place than when she first arrived in Washington.

After being elected in 2020 from Georgia's Deep Red 14th District. A litany of previous statements unspooled like a soundtrack of controversy and conspiracy There is an Islamic invasion into our government offices right now. How do you get avid gun owners and people.

That support the Second Amendment? To give up their guns? Maybe you accomplish that by performing a mass shooting into a crowd. The so called plane that crashed into the Pentagon It's odd there's never any evidence.

Shown for a plane in the Pentagon. And she made clear in late 2021 she had little interest playing nice with leaders of her own party. Respect is earned. It's earned. It's not given. Due respect, the Republican leadership right now.

No, I don't respect him at all. But heading into the midterm elections last fall, Republic and leaders noticed a change. Her criticism cooled and she was on hand in Pennsylvania cheering on McCarthy as he unveiled the GOP agenda. We're going to repeal.

87,000 IRS agents Our job is to work for you, not go after you. Our job is to make America stronger. Her support never wavered during the bruising speaker's fight. Distancing herself from McCarthy's outspoken critics, a group to whom she once belonged.

One Republican ally tells CNN her transformation, whether temporary or permanent, is a sign of strategic maturity. Indeed, she told CNN's Manu Raju, Republicans must show they can govern. I really want to see us to come together. There's an important race coming up in 2024 and Republicans.

We have to prove to the country that we can be trusted to lead. Jeff Zeleny joins us now along with CNN senior political correspondent and Inside Politics Sunday anchor Abby Phillip. So, Jeff, we heard in your piece coming, Marjorie Taylor Greene made regarding nine 11,.

Essentially questioning the attack on the Pentagon Now she'll have a seat on the Homeland Security Committee, which was founded in reaction to nine 11. What do we expect for her on that committee? Well, Anderson, she is first.

And foremost focused on the border. Of course, that's what many House Republicans are focused on, and particularly the policies of the Biden administration and of the DHS Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. So look for an investigation that could potentially lead.

To impeachment proceedings. We will see how that plays out. But this is really a test for her because just today she was put back on these committees. She's essentially been, you know, had a lot of free time on her hands that the last couple of years.

Because she's not serving on any committees at all after being stripped of those but she will be serving on the Homeland Security Committee and the Oversight Committee. So we'll see. We'll see how she conducts herself. She won't be leading these committees.

She'll be a member. But the border seems at least for now. Her focus. Abby, she supported defended Kevin McCarthy throughout his speakership bid. Republicans controlling the House, Greene showing her unwavering dedication. Where does this place her.

Now in the Republican Party? Yeah, I mean, I think that she said it herself several months ago that that if Republicans took over the House of Representatives, which they did, that she would be one of the most powerful members of of the House.

And I think that she probably, like a lot of other members, given out their small majority, is in a real position of power because I think that she lent Lent Kevin McCarthy quite a lot of credibility. And that relationship,.

If it is transactional, it is in both directions. I mean, he needs her as much as she needs him for an opportunity to be on those committees to have some kind of real power. So I think that she's strategically has quite a lot of power right now.

The question is, is she going to use it in a way that that is good for her? Or good for the Republican majority? I think those are not necessarily the same thing. And we'll see whether this strategic maturity that Jeff is talking about holds once there's a lot of pressure.

On Kevin McCarthy in the coming months from the right flank of which she is still apart. So she's clearly just trying to distance herself from anti-Semitic comments from the queen on crazy stuff. Has it impacted her support.

From her antiestablishment base? It hasn't yet. I mean, this is still fairly newly developing and she's speaking to a couple of different channels. At the same time. She's still, you know,.

Not necessarily shying away from some of the you know, the sharp comments that she's made, but she is shying away from all the conspiracy theories that sort of brought her in. And she's sort of changed her.

Staff in some respects. And she seems like she wants to be part of this new Republican majority. But she also, of course, wanted to be and have her committee assignments back. So we'll see how this plays out with the base. But she certainly has a lot of room here.

Because her district is deep red. So certainly supporting the Republican agenda is something that most of her constituents would also support. Yeah, I mean, she did provoke you know, on conspiracy theories. She even told President.

Trump in the lead of January six that Kundan devotees were going to attend his rally, according to transcripts released by the January six committee. Just last week, she seemed to distance herself from QAnon. And I want to play.

Listen to how she did that. Well, like a lot of people today, I had easily gotten sucked into some things I'd seen on the Internet, but that was dealt with quickly, early on. I never campaigned on those things. That was not something I believed in.

That's not what I ran for Congress on. So those are so far in the past. Do you think her distancing herself suddenly from this is going to work and rebranding herself as a more mainstream Republican? Abby. Well, you know, we'll see.

I mean, look, she says she didn't run on this stuff, but I do think that it was a key part of how she established her conservative bona fides to a certain segment of the Republican base. That's really important. I mean, she's in that seat now.

It's Ruby Red. But actually, for that reason, she may need to prove that she is still, you know, one with the base. And frankly, Kevin McCarthy is the speaker, but he has, you know, really a tenuous relationship.

With the kind of fundamentalist core of the Republican Party, which is why I think really only time will tell whether all of this holds. You know, I'll also say, Anderson, she all of the stuff about Q&A on is one thing, but she's also,.

You know, spoken in front of Nick fantasies, you know, white nationalist convention as well. So she has a lot of things in her past. And while she's distancing herself from those things, hasn't actually also denounced them. And I think there's really a difference.

Between those two things. Yeah. And they're not that far in the distance versus the white nationalist stuff. Abby, Phillip, appreciate it. Jeff Zeleny as well.

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