Members of Congress rarely work a full, five-day week, but the schedule on Capitol Hill this week was even more truncated than usual: Bipartisan groups of lawmakers from both chambers were poised to travel abroad as part of the celebrations of the D-Day anniversary.
This was, among other things, an opportunity for policymakers in the United States to demonstrate to our allies that there are still some core principles and values that American officials embrace and share with our partners abroad.
It was against this backdrop that Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia pushed a measure — to cut U.S. support for NATO. Newsweek reported:
A total of 46 House Republicans voted in favor of an amendment to defund NATO introduced on Tuesday night by Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a loyal Donald Trump ally who has long opposed military and financial aid to Ukraine. Greene called for an amendment which would have struck over “$433 million in NATO funding” from the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill, she told members of Congress while speaking on the House floor.
The fact that Greene pushed this measure is not, in and of itself, surprising. The Georgian is, after all, one of the most radical members of Congress to serve in recent memory.
What struck me as notable, however, is the striking number of House Republicans, each of whom surely knew the measure would fail, nevertheless wanted to go on record in support of the extremist congresswoman’s gambit.
Yes, Rep. French Hill of Arkansas, one of the 46, later said he voted for the amendment by accident. But even taking that into consideration, 45 House Republicans — representing roughly a fifth of the GOP conference — thought it’d be a good idea to defund NATO as members prepared to recognize the anniversary of D-Day. Four members would be too many, but 45 is a reminder of just how far contemporary Republicans — the party’s so-called “Putin wing” — have strayed from where the party stood until the recent past. Let’s also not forget that this vote, while striking, wasn’t an isolated incident: Roughly two years ago, the House voted to reaffirm its commitment to the NATO alliance, and nearly a third of the House Republican conference opposed the measure. A Washington Post analysis noted at the time that the GOP was “evolving on this issue — and certainly not in a pro-NATO direction.” This week’s vote offered fresh evidence that bolstered the point.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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