Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is "running" the Republican Party, according to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
While appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Wednesday, Jeffries was asked about attempts to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and said that "House Republicans are engaged in another partisan, political stunt. They apparently have been ordered to do so by Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene."
"Because these are the individuals who are basically running the House Republican Conference," Jeffries said. "Which is why we've seen nothing from this do-nothing Republican Congress but chaos, disfunction and extremism.
"We should be focused on issues related to the economy, inflation, national security, public safety, fixing the border. There are many challenges that we're ready, willing and able to confront with our Republican colleagues in a bipartisan way, but they've basically spent this Congress engaging in reckless political activity designed to distract from their failed agenda."
Earlier this week, House Republicans announced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, citing issues relating to the U.S.-Mexico border and allegations that Mayorkas violated border security laws resulting in an influx of migrants.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, last week, Greene celebrated the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, saying: "This is happening because I forced a floor vote on my Mayorkas articles of impeachment back in November and Democrats and eight Republicans voted to move my articles to our Homeland Security Committee giving us jurisdiction.
"When Republicans work together, we can bring great results for the American people and accountability to those breaking the law....Joe Biden and the Democrats are lying to the country when they claim their Senate border deal will help the border crisis."
Newsweek reached out to Greene's spokesperson via email for comment.
According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in December, there were over 300,000 migrant encounters at the U.S. Southwest land borders, an increase from the two previous months which saw 242,407 and 240,981, respectively. The data also shows that throughout 2023, migrant encounters continued to increase when compared to previous years.
Republicans have continued to criticize Biden's handling of the U.S.-Mexico border and Texas Governor Greg Abbott is in a feud with the federal government over a ruling that required Texas to remove razor wire from the border near Eagle Pass.
In a statement this week, Biden responded to some of the criticism, saying: "For too long, we all know the border's been broken....Further, Congress needs to finally provide the funding I requested in October to secure the border. This includes an additional 1,300 border patrol agents, 375 immigration judges, 1,600 asylum officers, and over 100 cutting-edge inspection machines to help detect and stop fentanyl at our Southwest border."
Update 1/31/24, 10:07 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with further information.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
