Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia “knows” her name is “on a list” of possible picks as vice-president to Donald Trump should he win the Republican nomination next year, the far-right congresswoman and conspiracy theorist told the Guardian on Wednesday.
“I’d have to think about it and consider it,” Greene said, in Milwaukee ahead of the first Republican presidential debate.
“It’s talked about frequently and I know my name is on a list but really my biggest focus right now is serving the district that elected me.”
Elected to Congress in 2020, Greene has rarely been far from controversy or the spotlight. She has voiced antisemitic conspiracy theories and cast doubt on school shootings. She has heckled Joe Biden during speeches, displayed explicit pictures of his son Hunter Biden in congressional hearings, angrily confronted Democrats and activists and even publicly fallen out with a fellow Republican rabble-rouser, Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
On Wednesday, Greene was not the only prominent Trump ally in Congress to fly to Wisconsin, despite the 91-times charged former president’s decision to skip the Republican debate. Matt Gaetz of Florida was in evidence too. Sitting in a hotel lobby, Greene told the Guardian she backed Trump’s decision to stay away.
“I told him to skip it,” she said. “It’s a waste of his time.
“He’s winning by over 60%, poll after poll depending on what state you’re looking at and the national poll. It’s a complete waste of his time to step out on a stage and be the centre of the attacks when he has a four-year record as president that everybody wants back and none of those people on the stage have anything that they can compare to him.”
Trump’s decision about a running mate was his alone to make, she said.
“I don’t know who that person is going to be and I don’t even think they’re going to be on that debate stage. I’ll argue that.”
There has been speculation about whether some of the eight candidates on the stage on Wednesday might be angling to be Trump’s running mate.
after newsletter promotion
Greene said: “But, of course, that’s up to him. But I would be honoured and consider it. But my most important job is, of course, to serve the American people and I’ll help him do whatever in any way I can.”
Trump is expected to surrender at the Fulton county jail on Thursday evening, on racketeering and conspiracy charges, over his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. It is Greene’s home state but she dismissed the sweeping indictment as “garbage” and said she had not read it.
“I wouldn’t waste five seconds of my time,” she said.