January 25, 2023

Marjorie Taylor Greene Wants to Be Trump’s VP

Apparently, she sees herself as something of a liaison between the GOP’s worst creatures and what passes for the party’s mainstream these days.

Tom Williams/ZUMA

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“Marjorie Taylor Greene is having a moment,” a recent headline declared, one of a host of news reports wondering why the Georgia congresswoman—whose endorsement of the execution of prominent Democrats got her kicked off two congressional committees—is suddenly, sort of, cleaning up her act.

But as with everything in politics, it seems that unadulterated, DC-brain ambition is at the core of Greene’s curious pivot—and she’s hoping to manifest “Madam Vice President” into reality.

“She sees herself on the shortlist for Trump’s VP,” Steve Bannon told NBC News, later praising Greene as both “strategic and disciplined.” Another source told NBC that Greene has a “whole vision” to get on Trump’s ticket, and it involves fashioning herself into something of a liaison between the GOP’s worst creatures and what passes for the party’s mainstream these days.

There’s no word from Mar-a-Lago on whether Trump is seriously considering the far-right congresswoman to be his running mate. For now, he seems mostly occupied with lawsuits and drafting his first tweet for his inevitable return to Elon Musk’s platform. But it’s a strange thing witnessing the ongoing elevation of Greene, with everyone from new BFF Kevin McCarthy to Steve Bannon padding her ascent. Now, will it take her all the way to the Naval Observatory? In a universe where Greene is getting tapped to investigate the government’s Covid response, well, anything’s possible; tomorrow will surely be worse.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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