Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has been conspicuously absent from Washington since her shock announcement that she would step down from Congress, missing a full week’s worth of votes as she prepares for an early retirement.
Greene, who announced her resignation last month amid a messy political divorce from President Donald Trump, has missed all nine roll-call votes taken since lawmakers returned from a Thanksgiving recess on Monday. By contrast, she was present for every vote the week before the House left town and had only missed a handful this year.
A spokesman did not return a request for comment on whether Greene would be in Washington next week or for the rest of December. However, with just eight legislative days remaining before lawmakers leave again for Christmas, her absence has frustrated Republicans who already felt she was abandoning the party.
Greene is resigning on Jan. 5, a full year before the end of the current Congress and weeks before Republicans’ House majority is shaved down to almost zero due to a handful of special elections next year.
“When you run for office, you have an obligation to fulfill your term,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) previously told the Washington Examiner. He is one of three dozen House members to announce their departure at the end of next year, and Bacon had briefly considered retiring early himself.
The date Greene chose to resign also drew criticism, as it was three days after the qualifying date for a government pension.
Greene, a conservative firebrand who often clashes with leadership, has not entirely avoided the political spotlight, sitting for a soon-to-air interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes in which she discussed her falling out with Trump.
On social media, she egged on Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-NY) very public fight with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and will next week be speaking with Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), another House rabble-rouser who denied reports that she may follow Greene into early retirement.
In her home district, Greene appeared for a public hearing Thursday night to denounce the construction of a bio-energy facility she cast as a “shady land deal.” In introducing herself to the audience, Greene said she was there in her “official capacity” as a lawmaker.
Greene is one of six members, two Republicans and four Democrats, to miss every House vote this week, according to a tally by longtime correspondent Jamie Dupree. One of them, Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), has been on paternity leave after the birth of his first child.
Greene’s shrinking footprint on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, follows an escalating set of clashes with Trump, who threatened to run a primary challenge against her next year for bucking him repeatedly on policy.
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For years, Greene was one of Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers in Washington, but says she became disenchanted by his military interventions abroad.
“It’s all so absurd and completely unserious,” Greene said in announcing her retirement on Nov. 21. “I refuse to be a battered wife hoping it all goes away and gets better.”
She is departing Washington shortly after leading a successful effort to force the release of the Epstein files, which Trump opposed until performing an about-face once it became clear the bill would pass.
