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Today, the 45-member group finds itself increasingly split into two freshman camps. There are the members who have flipped suburban swivel seats and dismissed false allegations of election fraud by Trump – a group that includes single mothers and Cuban and Korean immigrants. And then there are those like Representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, who have won deep red districts where loyalty to the president is paramount and conspiracy theories are rife.
The warring factions in the freshman class mirror the broader GOP divide, where the rift is widening between a Trump-loving base and the moderate wing that can help make Republicans a majority party in 2022.
And some freshmen were louder than others. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who returned to a GOP seat in the Lowcountry, has become the most ardent critic of Trump and the “QAnon wing” of her class.
Mace excoriated some Republicans for their potential role in inciting violent mobs on January 6, calling on them to face investigations and other possible repercussions such as censorship – which would represent a scathing rebuke from a colleague.
“It is very important that we hold everyone accountable, and I hope people are investigated to the fullest extent of the law – starting with the president. Including members of Congress, ”Mace said, noting that“ all options ”should be on the table. “We allowed QAnon’s conspiracy theorists to guide us.”
Mace, however, said she was not worried about the potential backlash for criticizing her new colleagues: “I don’t operate out of fear.”
But she is also not blind to the risks she and her family face. Mace said she applied for a concealed transport permit and sent her children home from DC soon after she began receiving threats for promising to certify victory for President-elect Joe Biden.
Meijer, meanwhile, said he was now investing in bulletproof vests after joining just nine other Republicans in voting for impeachment. He also suggested that fears for personal safety had prompted some of his colleagues to support Trump’s challenges in the face of the election results.
“It was for many of us, especially for those who decided to vote for impeachment, one of the worst weeks of our lives, one of the most difficult votes we have ever had to take.” , Meijer said on MSNBC. “I spoke to a number of co-workers, I just felt physically nauseous.
To the frustration of some GOP lawmakers, Minority House Leader Kevin McCarthy has advised some of the freshmen on which states to oppose and even warned of the main potential challenges if they don’t, first POLITICO reported.
And in the hours following the January 6 riots, when Congress began to resume the electoral certification process, some freshmen were still torn over how to vote and sought advice from more experienced lawmakers, according to sources close to the conversations.
But in the end, the majority of the new Republicans in the House opposed the results, along with more than 120 GOP lawmakers. Several of the freshmen even led the charge against Biden’s victory and spoke upstairs in the House, including Boebert, Greene and rookie Rep. Madison Cawthorn (RN.C.).
The marked differences in style and substance led to clashes between the freshmen. On a GOP conference call Monday, Mace and others criticized Boebert for suggesting that Capitol Hill police officers were involved in the riot and for tweeting live where the speaker was during the siege . Boebert replied that it was not his intention and asked his colleagues not to accuse him of anything.
And the next day, Axios reported that Mace criticized Greene in a private text channel among all new GOP members, calling her the “literal lady QAnon.” Greene’s office said different points of view were to be expected in such a large class, but said the MP was primarily concerned about the violation of privacy.
Greene responded to Axios with a similar sentiment: “Who is the freshman rep who betrays everyone’s trust and leaks our group chat to the press?”
McCarthy tried to keep the unit in its ranks, repeatedly warning members not to attack each other over their positions on the issue.
“I want everyone to understand: emotions run high,” McCarthy said on a GOP conference call this week, according to a source familiar with the conversation. “What you say matters. Don’t put others at risk. Let’s look at the words we use and certainly do not use the names of other members in any media. “
Amid riots and impeachment, few incoming freshman classes experienced chaotic early weeks in the office. And the political implications of their votes will reverberate throughout the months to come: The House Democratic campaign arm is already capturing their impeachment and certification votes for use as a club in 2022.
GOP recruiters sang about the rising stars who ousted Democrats in November, a diverse variety of candidates who they hoped would improve the party’s image in American suburbs and dominate the spotlight. There are representatives: Young Kim, one of the first Korean American women in Congress; Representative Maria Elvira Salazar, whose family fled Communist Cuba; and Mace, the first woman to graduate from the Citadel Military College.
But the large number of retirements of older Republicans from Main Street during the Trump era means the party has also seen an infusion of new representatives from safe red seats. The most notable are Greene and Boebert, who suggested before winning the election that they believed in aspects of the far-right QAnon movement.
Many of these new members have shown themselves eager to emulate the president’s brash and often offensive style. Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) Had to apologize during her first week in office for praising Hitler in a speech to Trump supporters. Meanwhile, Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) Deleted his personal Twitter account after complaining that there were “more podium theft arrests” on January 6 than for “election theft. On November 3. Then there’s Cawthorn, who urged a crowd to “lightly threaten” their members of Congress if they want to motivate their votes and actions.
The coronavirus – and how to take it seriously – has also created a divide in the new GOP class. Freshman Rep Bob Good (R-Va.), A radical conservative who ousted libertarian-leaning Denver Riggleman in a primary, suffered a backlash for calling Covid a ‘bogus pandemic’ in a December speech in downtown Washington, DC
And Greene sometimes refused to wear a mask, arguing that it was “my body, my choice.”
To which, Mace responded in a sub-sweet of his own: “My body. My choice. And I choose to wear a mask.
Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.
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