Marjorie Traitor Greene made one of her signature idiotic speeches at a far right conference, babbling about a lot of nonsense that the far right doesn’t like (such as the New Deal and Medicare) but that, unbeknownst to them, something like 80% of Americans love. She had no idea what she was reading; someone else had written it for her. But it has made her famous-- albeit a laughing stock-- because Team Biden made it into an ad… an ad that’s been already seen by over 50 million people. Let’s watch it on Morning Joe— and then listen to how they explained what the idiot from Georgia and stumbled into.
Yesterday, Obama’s former Comms Director, Dan Pfeiffer, explained why this ad is absolutely classic and why every ad maker prays for this kind of material to work with. “To say people went bananas for this video,” he wrote, “would be a huge understatement. It had 10 million views across all platforms within three hours. That number was over 50 million by Thursday. Marjorie Taylor Greene stumbling into a campaign ad for Biden is just too much fun. It’s embarrassing for Greene and highlights her willfully ignorant approach to public life. The video is also a testament to the talented folks doing digital rapid response for Biden and the Democratic National Committee. Strategically, this video bodes well for Team Biden as they prepare for a long and brutal campaign. I love dunking on MTG, but I am in love with this video for another reason— it is the archetype of what political communicators should aim for.” So… this is why the ad, less than a week old, is already a classic.
Here’s how things tend to work on a campaign. The consultants and strategists commission polls and focus groups to get a sense of the electorate and test various messages. They then go to the communications team and say something like, “According to our research, voters love it when we talk about ‘growing the middle class.’ Let’s do some middle-class press events. And oh yeah, tell the digital team that we need some middle-class content.”
The second the consultants leave the meeting, the comms people start banging their heads against the nearest hard surface. The press doesn’t want to cover an event on “growing the middle class.” Social posts about the economy get very little engagement.
Therein lies the inherent tension in political communications — the topics you want to talk about are rarely the topics that travel well in a media environment powered by conflict, controversy, and clickbait. Getting attention is hard. Getting attention for the right issues can feel impossible.
As a communicator, the choice is between optimizing for the message that helps the campaign or optimizing for virality. In the last few election cycles, many campaigns chose the latter.
I am sympathetic to why people make this choice. The communications team gets judged by the quantity of coverage of various events and speeches. The digital team is judged by the amount of engagement with the campaign’s social posts. No one wants to get up every day to do the PR version of a tree falling in the woods.
…Informing the voters about his economic achievements is one of President Biden’s most important strategic objectives; and one of his biggest challenges. The press doesn’t want to cover the past. Stories about the economy do not drive web traffic. The many events the White House and other Democrats have done (touting the CHIPS Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) don’t lead the news or drive conversation online. The video with Marjorie Taylor Greene is the platonic ideal of a piece of political content. It is viral AND communicates a persuasive message at scale.
There is, of course, an element of lightning in a bottle with this video. It is impossible to do something like this all the time. However, Team Biden’s video is still worth studying because it exemplifies success for every person who works in communications.
I’m going to guess that someone told Traitor Greene this is going on. But she’s probably too busy fighting with her former best friend, Lauren Boebert, to pay much attention. In fact, a few days ago Zach Petrizzo reported that everyone in DC knows that the relationship between Traitor Greene and Boebert is on the rocks— “never been worse.” Boebert was part of the cliche that got Traitor Greene kicked out of the Freedom Caucus after Traitor Greene had called her a “little bitch” on the House floor and threatened to— depending on who you Hera it from— kick her ass or shoot her. The two of them bring guns to the floor of Congress and several members who hear the argument say they were afraid of a gun-fight and at least two of them complained to McCarthy.
Petrizzo wrote that “the situation between the two is still even worse than most people think. ‘A fistfight could break out at any moment,’ Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) told the Daily Beast. Burchett, who later clarified that he was serious, said he was enjoying the standoff as a ‘professional wrestling fan. I am friends with both of them. It’s entertaining to think that a fistfight could break out at any movement. I kind of dig that,’ he continued.”
Burchett isn’t the only person who thinks the feud could turn even nastier.
Another Republican lawmaker who is close to both Greene and Boebert told the Daily Beast that the situation was a tinderbox.
“You can’t have too many of these rifts for too long,” this lawmaker said.
Another GOP member suggested that one of them would destroy the other— they just didn’t know who would come out on top.
“They will be nailing that coffin shut,” this lawmaker said, “and one of them is still in there kicking and screaming!”
Rep Paul Gosar (R-AZ) compared Greene and Boebert’s battle to that of a “two-way sword.”
“I just think that whatever is there, could be utilized both ways,” he said, adding that “people make decisions that they have to work and live by, and you kind of hate being in their shoes.”
…Greene was apparently so upset about being kicked out of the Freedom Caucus that she refused to hear the news unless it was done in a public setting— like on the House floor where she could potentially make a scene.
When Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-PA) tried to call Greene to inform her about the decision, she refused to have the conversation and said she’d like to do it in person on the floor, multiple sources told the Daily Beast.
Greene has since fought a phone call and continued to suggest a more public meeting.
…Inside the closed-door Freedom Caucus dinner at the Conservative Partnership Institute this past Tuesday night, [Louisiana crackpot Clay]Higgins urged fellow members to pump the brakes and “think through their decision,” according to [Matt Rosendale].
But unlike Higgins, Rosendale was a leading force pushing behind the scenes for the group to expel Greene, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Rosendale, who is likely to run for U.S. Senate in Montana, was supposedly still steaming over a move Greene pulled on him more than six months ago.
On the House floor in January, Rosendale was one of the 20 lawmakers refusing to back Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. At one point, Greene walked up to Rosendale and handed him her phone, but Rosendale refused to take it.
Reporters and photographers who caught the scene revealed that Trump was on the line, hoping to convince him to support McCarthy. Getting busted for waving away Trump’s call was a bad look for the right-wing congressman— and he didn’t forgive Greene for putting him in that situation.
“Rosendale was pissed about the phone call and was instrumental in her ousting,” said a Trump-aligned consultant who works with several HFC members.
…While there remains bad blood between Boebert and Greene, it was within a pre-July 4 recess private Freedom Caucus meeting where Boebert made her move.
After initially seconding a motion to allow Greene to stay in the Freedom Caucus, Boebert later in the meeting— in a subsequent vote— moved to kick out Greene, along with an “overwhelming” group of her fellow Freedom Caucus members, according to a previously mentioned lawmaker familiar with the matter. (The Freedom Caucus typically has a four-fifths majority requirement for such “official positions.”)
There are “qualifications to be a member of the Freedom Caucus in good standing,” a Republican lawmaker said. (Boebert declined to comment on her private Freedom Caucus vote.)
As for Greene, when the Daily Beast asked about Boebert’s vote in support of her ouster, she also didn’t want to talk.
“Dude, do you do anything besides report on complete drama and bullshit?” she asked the Daily Beast. “No, I’m serious.”
But it’s become increasingly clear that Boebert and Greene, once close allies, are now at each other’s throats. And both are powerful enemies.
Although Greene staying in the HFC may have seemed untenable given her public rebukes of a fellow member, the Freedom Caucus has relied on Greene as a fundraiser for the group.
With Greene on the outs, the Freedom Caucus also now has a powerful conservative voice against them.
While the HFC was founded on not allowing showier, less serious conservative voices to join its ranks— like Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Steve King (R-IA)— that thinking has been a thing of the past for years. The Freedom Caucus eventually even let Gohmert join its ranks. (Both members are now gone from Congress.)
By the time Greene and Boebert arrived in Congress just days before the Jan. 6 insurrection, the Freedom Caucus was allowing almost any rambunctious conservative to join. It had, after all, primarily become a pro-Donald Trump group and less of the ideological organization formed to fight for a more open process in Congress.
But with Trump out of office and a GOP majority taking back the House, the Freedom Caucus has reignited its love for an open process and seemed less concerned with being a pro-Trump group. (Ron DeSantis, after all, was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus.)
With Greene’s expulsion, there’s a chance the group continues more in its founding direction.
But there’s also a chance they bend to Trump’s will. While Greene has clearly moved to align herself more with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, it’s also true that Greene has Trump on speed dial. And HFC members mostly remain obsessed with staying in Trump’s good graces.
Meanwhile, Boebert was only narrowly re-elected last November, and she’s running against the same Democrat who came within 600 votes of beating her last time.
The spat with Greene may convince some moderates that Boebert is becoming more serious, but it also may turn off some of her fiercest conservative supporters across the country.
Ultimately, Greene may have a say in the matter. What seems obvious now is that neither Greene nor Boebert wants the other one to have the last laugh.