
Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks out about President Trump
Clip: 12/9/2025 | 11m 1sVideo has Closed Captions
Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks out about President Trump as she prepares to leave Congress
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene rose to national prominence as one of the most vocal backers of President Trump. But the pair fell out after she called for the extension of expiring health care subsidies and for the release of the Epstein files over his objections. Greene, who plans on resigning in early January, joins Amna Nawaz for a one-on-one interview from her Capitol Hill office.
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Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks out about President Trump
Clip: 12/9/2025 | 11m 1sVideo has Closed Captions
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene rose to national prominence as one of the most vocal backers of President Trump. But the pair fell out after she called for the extension of expiring health care subsidies and for the release of the Epstein files over his objections. Greene, who plans on resigning in early January, joins Amna Nawaz for a one-on-one interview from her Capitol Hill office.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipAMNA NAWAZ: Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene rose to national prominence as one of the most vocal backers of President Donald Trump.
But the pair fell out, dramatically and publicly, after she called for the extension of expiring health care subsidies and fought for the release of the Epstein files over his objections.
She prevailed in the latter fight, but has announced that she will be resigning in early January.
Marjorie Taylor Greene joins us now from her office on Capitol Hill.
Congresswoman, welcome to the "News Hour."
Thanks for joining us.
REP.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Hi.
Thank you for having me.
AMNA NAWAZ: Can we just begin with some of the news today, which, as you know, is President Trump kicking off with the White House says is going to be a series of events talking about affordability.
I know you broke with the president, sided with the Democrats on this issue, specifically as it relates to health care costs during the shutdown, but I have to ask, you have seen the polling.
You have seen how Americans are looking at this.
Do you think the president has lost the Americans' trust on this core issue of affordability?
REP.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Well, this is an issue actually I have been talking about for months and months.
Americans truly suffered under the past four years, where we saw inflation skyrocket to 40-year highs in 2022.
And while inflation has steadied, prices have not really come down, except in a few key areas.
But, unfortunately, over the past year, we have seen the president and the White House as a whole focus tremendously on foreign policy.
My stance, of course, and many others is no more foreign wars.
That means that we don't have to participate or fund them.
But we haven't seen a strong focus on America's economy and affordability, just as you mentioned, just until recently.
Now, I'm happy to see that turn and that focus put there, but I think, unfortunately, that should have been the focus the entire time.
AMNA NAWAZ: We have seen President Trump also previously dismiss concerns about affordability as a Democratic hoax.
You think that was a mistake?
REP.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Yes, I do.
Affordability or the lack of ability of Americans to afford the cost of living is not a Democrat hoax.
Credit card debt is at an all-time high right now.
And there's many other problems in the economy.
It just hasn't quite stabilized yet.
AMNA NAWAZ: You have also broken with President Trump when it comes to backing an effort to release the full Epstein files.
And I know you have said in the past too the survivors have come to you and offered to provide you a list of the perpetrators they have compiled so that you can read it on the House floor.
You have only got a few days left in Congress.
So are you going to do that before you leave?
REP.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Well, just to be clear, they have not given me that list of names.
So that's a list that they still hold.
And I can tell you firsthand I can understand the fear that these women have to release that list of names.
And they are the only ones that can choose to do so.
So if they were to give me that list of names, I certainly would be willing to do it before I left.
AMNA NAWAZ: When you came out to back the release of those files, you said that President Trump told you that people will get hurt if those files are released.
I have to ask, what did you take that to mean?
Was the president talking about himself?
REP.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: I really don't know what that means, and I can't comprehend it.
So, just going by what the women themselves have told me, and I have met with them several times, is, they said, that Donald Trump had done nothing wrong.
Their attorney said that he was the only one that helped them years ago with Jeffrey Epstein and lawsuits and convictions.
So it's -- again, based on their words, it doesn't sound like Donald Trump is guilty of harming them in any way.
(CROSSTALK) AMNA NAWAZ: So, if I may, if that's the case, who do you think the president is worried about here?
REP.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Well, if he says people will get hurt, I don't think it's the women.
I think it's maybe the men that they're talking about that they're scared to say who they are.
Maybe those names are in the files.
And we don't know because all the files have not come out yet.
AMNA NAWAZ: Congresswoman, I have to ask you, as you have pointed out, you were a staunch, vocal MAGA loyalist for the president, voting with him 98 percent of the time.
And it went very quickly to you breaking with him publicly and deciding to leave Congress within just a matter of months.
And earlier this year, you were calling him "my favorite president of all time."
Meanwhile, he's called you a lunatic, a traitor.
After your recent "60 Minutes" interview, he said your views are -- quote -- "those of a very dumb person."
Is he still your favorite president of all time?
REP.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Well, I think the president's words are unfortunate.
But this is the behavior that, unfortunately, America is used to seeing from Donald Trump.
And when I have talked a lot about how politics have become.
It's so toxic and it's violent.
My office has reported 773 death threats since I have been in Congress, and that isn't -- that's not all of them.
There were many more.
And after the president unfortunately called me a traitor, even though I have been his most loyal member of Congress and have such a strong voting record with him, I also have legislation that directly reflects many of his executive orders.
The result of that was a pipe bomb threat on my house, a pipe bomb threat on my construction company, multiple pizza doxxing deliveries, and a direct death threat, multiple direct death threats on my own son.
And this is the type of the nature of toxic politics that I think America is so tired of.
But it shows, it really shows there's a problem in the Republican Party when the leader of the Republican Party, the president of the United States, would actually attack one of his own members that has been so good to him.
I very much support America first policies, which the president campaigned on.
I would love to see him be successful in those for the American people, but I just can't allow myself to be what I call a battered wife and be treated this way.
It's just too much.
It's too high of a bar.
And I shouldn't have to wait here until I'm possibly murdered like Charlie Kirk or, God forbid, one of my kids be murdered as well.
AMNA NAWAZ: And, Congresswoman, it's so disturbing to hear what you have been facing recently as a result, as you point out, directly of the president's own words.
But, as you well know, the president has long really focused much of his anger and ire on Democrats, on officials, on lawmakers, but also everyday civilians.
I mean, election workers in your own state of Georgia faced those kinds of threats from the president.
Do you now, knowing what you know now, having experienced what you have experienced, do you wish you would spoken out earlier about some of that rhetoric that you're clearly worried can lead to real-world violence?
REP.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Yes, this is actually something I have been talking about recently.
I have been here five years and have seen it up closely, not just from my perspective.
I have watched many of my colleagues go through political violence.
We have seen it across the country.
We saw the president shot at a rally.
We saw Charlie Kirk assassinated, Josh Shapiro's home arson -- burned, the Minnesota lawmakers.
And the list goes on and on.
And this is not what it should be like for any lawmaker on either side of the aisle.
But there's the -- it's -- I call it the political industrial complex.
It's the way the two parties are built and they're designed to attack one another.
And that's how fund-raising happens.
That's how people get elected.
It's literally ripping our country apart.
And I don't think that's a good thing.
So it's just something I don't want to participate in.
AMNA NAWAZ: But, Congresswoman, I have to ask.
People will wonder, if you felt this way before, the fact that you didn't speak out against it until you experienced it yourself, they will wonder why not.
REP.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: No, I actually had.
I'm on record many times denouncing political violence when I had seen it on both sides.
So I am on record denouncing it.
AMNA NAWAZ: Can I ask too, you mentioned this political industrial complex.
Obviously, these systems are made up of people, right, people who are acting and saying things in different ways.
And I know our audience would welcome the chance to hear from you on this, because they want to see that end to that political toxicity as well you have talked about.
They have also seen headlines in which you yourself have been yelling at President Biden, calling him a liar during the State of the Union, or saying your Democratic colleagues at a congressional hearing was messing up her reading because of fake eyelashes, or tweeting after Pope Francis died that "Evil is being defeated by the hand of God."
So, I want to give you a chance to speak directly to our viewers and just reflect back on anything you have said in your time in office that you wish you hadn't or something you wish you hadn't done.
REP.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Well, I have already addressed that and I have done that publicly.
And I think the problem with the political industrial complex is, I'm -- not only have I been a part of it, but I have also been a victim of it.
I will give you an example that has been outlandish.
People accused me of being the January 5 pipe bomber for a very long time.
They made videos.
It was posted all over Twitter.
It was Twitter at the time.
I was -- I have also been used by Democrats in many of their campaigns and fund-raising e-mails, demonized, so that they could raise money off of me.
And so I have been a victim of it as well.
As a matter of fact, all of us have.
So this is something that I have definitely already addressed.
AMNA NAWAZ: Forgive me if I have missed it.
Do I take that to mean that you do regret yelling out during the State of the Union calling President Biden the liar?
REP.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: So, just you know, I have already addressed that.
I think it was on Dana Bash's show on CNN.
I have already also addressed that back in 2021.
And so it's just important that -- to understand that this is something that I have definitely already addressed.
AMNA NAWAZ: I just want to be clear, Congresswoman.
That is to say that -- is that a yes I'm hearing from you?
REP.
MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: Yes, it's already been addressed.
AMNA NAWAZ: And a technical note.
We lost Congresswoman Greene's video feed during the interview and were unable to reconnect.
But we thank her for joining us.
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