‘Pro-family’ groups criticize Greene and other ‘GOP rebels’ they endorsed

Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the most extreme and conspiracy-prone members of the U.S. House of Representatives, has many enemies. But she could always count on the support of conservative “pro-family” groups that endorsed her — until now.

Greene was booed in the House last week when she introduced legislation to vacate the speaker’s chair. The effort was defeated 359-43 with the help of Democrats. Now some of her most loyal Christian backers are losing faith.

In the past, Family Research Council, founded in 1983 by Focus on the Family, and Concerned Women for America, founded in 1978 by the late Beverly LaHaye, both endorsed Greene 100% and applauded her for her work opposing LGBTQ rights and other issues.

Now, both groups are criticizing Greene’s latest “bizarre conundrum”: the effort to take down House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has a long association with their movement.

“Stop the madness,” said FRC President Tony Perkins in the organization’s The Washington Stand, which says it provides “news and commentary from a biblical worldview.”

“I thought the goal of government was to work for the people — not just take political pot shots at the other party,” said Perkins, who has mentored Johnson for decades.

FRC criticized Greene as well as the 10 Republicans who supported her latest effort to oust Johnson, calling them “the irrational wing of the GOP,” “GOP rebels,” “attention seekers” and “rogue members” and blaming their “selfish ploy” for the House’s “disruption and chaos,” “soap opera” and “kindergarten atmosphere.”

“Strangely enough, Democrats seem to be the reasonable party here,” said the Washington Stand in March. The outlet’s articles run in other conservative outlets, including the American Family Association’s The Stand and The Patriot Post.

FRC called the 10 House members who supported Greene’s effort to oust Johnson her “10 Republican co-conspirators,” but FRC has given all 10 of them its endorsement: Andy Biggs (Ariz.); Eric Burlison (Mo.); Eli Crane (Ariz.); Warren Davidson (Ohio); Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Alex Mooney (W.Va.); Barry Moore (Ala.); Chip Roy (Texas); and Victoria Spartz (Ind.).

BNG reached out to FRC to ask why it is now going after officials it has endorsed, why it routinely endorses House members it now blames for “madness,” and whether it will again endorse these far-right House members in November. The group did not respond.

Concerned Women for America also has endorsed Greene and her 10 GOP allies but is now calling them out: “Every day, her attacks get more shrill and conspiratorial — she has questioned Johnson’s faith, claimed that he has surrendered to Democrats, and even suggested that he is being blackmailed,” wrote CWA’s Penny Nance. “Can such dissenters ever be satisfied, or are they more interested in the 15 minutes of fame that comes with bashing their leader?”

The pro-family groups critique of “rogue” GOP officials echoes that of Donald Trump, who has long supported Greene, but now warns against her antics.

“If we show DISUNITY, which will be portrayed as CHAOS, it will negatively affect everything!” Trump posted. “Mike Johnson is a good man who is trying very hard.”

“The Republicans now turning on Johnson may need a reminder that we are only seven months from an election,” said CWA’s Nance last month.

“Their decision to keep sabotaging Johnson comes at the party’s peril,” said former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who presided over the 1995 shutdown of the U.S. government, in comments to FRC’s The Washington Stand. Gingrich called Greene and her gang “narcissists.”

In the past, Greene received praise from pro-family groups for her opposition to gay rights and her support of legislation that would prohibit transgender medical procedures and remove trans-identifying children from their own parents.

Pro-family groups haven’t previously criticized Greene. Nor did they criticize their endorsed House members who led last year’s successful campaign to oust the previous House speaker, Kevin McCarthy.

Greene has a long history of criticism-ready antics.

One week before the effort to boot Speaker Johnson, Greene opposed a bipartisan House bill that would outlaw antisemitic speech on college campuses, claiming the bill “could convict Christians of antisemitism for believing the gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews.”

In 2018, Greene promoted a conspiracy that wealthy Jews were behind a plot to use a “solar energy laser generator” (later parodied as “Jewish space laser”) to cause devastating wildfires that would clear the land for a high-speed railway favored by Democrats.

In 2018 and 2019, Greene routinely recommended violence against Democratic leaders. During her 2019 campaign for her Georgia House seat, Greene said “a bullet to the head would be quicker” than removing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi through an election.

She said the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. — which killed 17 people and injured 17 more — was a “false flag” event. She blamed the 2022 shooting at a Nashville Christian school on “hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness (that) the transgender Nashville school shooter (was) taking.” She added, “Everyone can stop blaming guns now.”

Green and Colorado House member Lauren Boebert sponsored legislation that would remove special no-fly zones from Disney World and Disneyland, an effort to punish Disney for “wokeness.”

Greene also has supported legislation to impeach President Biden and other administration officials; cut the salary of cabinet heads; defund special counsel Jack Smith who is investigating Trump; prevent children from seeing drag shows; and ban illegal immigrants from voting, something that’s already illegal.

She also led a congressional delegation to visit January 6 defendants.