Firing Line

- Debriefing with a defector.

This week on "Firing Line."

Marjorie Taylor Greene was one of Donald Trump's most fervent supporters from her first day in Congress in 2021.

Her in-your-face style of politics appealed to Donald Trump.

- I'm going to blow away the Democrats' socialist agenda.

(explosion booming) - [Margaret] But the war in Iran, cryptocurrency and AI policy, and, ultimately, the Epstein scandal created a rift in that relationship.

- And today you are going to see probably a unanimous vote in the House to release the Epstein files.

- I don't know what happened to Marjorie.

She's a nice woman, but I don't know what happened.

She's lost her way, I think.

- [Margaret] When Donald Trump pulled his endorsement of Greene in 2025, she withdrew from the race and from Congress.

- I refuse to be a battered wife, hoping it all goes away and gets better.

- [Margaret] With midterms approaching and Donald Trump at record low approvals, what does Marjorie Taylor Greene say now?

- [Announcer] "Firing Line with Margaret Hoover" is made possible in part by Robert Granieri, Vanessa and Henry Cornell, the Margaret and Daniel Loeb Foundation, the Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation, and by the following.

(bright music) - Marjorie Taylor Greene, welcome to "Firing Line."

- Thank you.

It's great to be here.

- Listen, before we dive in, I need to level with you and I need to level with this audience.

I have been critical of you, especially early in your congressional career, and I supported your primary opponent in your very first reelection campaign.

Since then, I have watched your political career grow and evolve as you became a major force in the Republican Party's America First movement.

And I wanted to invite you to join the program today because you have firsthand insight into the current disarray on the political right and where the GOP might turn when President Trump's term in the White House is over.

- Yeah, and thank you for that.

I appreciate you being forthcoming.

So from the beginning, the lane that I've been in has always been America First, and that was a part of MAGA, which has now broken off.

And so I had the support of the people, of course, when I ran for Congress in 2020, grew the support of the people, and now I think I represent many Americans who find themselves completely disenfranchised by the Republican Party.

They feel completely failed by the Republican Party and really can't find a political home.

- In January, you officially resigned from Congress.

You left your post as a representative of Georgia's 14th Congressional District.

And this really was the culmination of a very public breakup with President Trump, who you vigorously helped support in his reelection, and you said in the end that Trump betrayed us all.

How?

- Well, there's a lot to that answer.

And so, yes, I felt like I was on the front lines for the Republican Party and I threw myself all in because of the policies that President Trump espoused on the campaign trail that to me were America first.

No more foreign wars, reducing the cost of living, putting American businesses and Americans first.

And then once he became president, the man that I thought I knew and campaigned for changed, but so did many other Republicans.

It's not just President Trump.

Many Republicans changed.

They made the same promises on the campaign trail, but once we got into power, we had the White House, control the House and the Senate, within about six months, the whole agenda started falling off to the side.

And there were multiple things that I went sideways with the president on.

One of them was the 10-year moratorium that they wanted to put in place on states' rights to make regulations and laws on AI and data centers.

And so that was one of them.

Another one was crypto.

We went sideways on crypto.

But when it came to the Epstein files, standing up for women who were raped as teenage girls, 14 and 16 years old, I have no apologies, none, and no regrets.

- Yeah.

He called you a traitor.

- [Reporter] Marjorie Taylor Greene says her life could be in danger because of the rhetoric.

- Her life is in danger?

Who's that?

- [Reporter] Marjorie Taylor Greene.

She's says- - Marjorie Traitor Greene.

I don't think her life is in danger.

Frankly, I don't think anybody cares about her.

- Yeah, he means a traitor to him.

So the president demands loyalty, but my loyalty does not belong to Donald Trump.

And so, yeah, he called me a traitor and it did not hurt me one single bit.

As a matter of fact, I have people thank me every single day in public for standing up the way that I did.

And I never went to Washington to cling the power until I'm dead or alive, like Mitch McConnell.

We don't even know.

I never wanted a full career there.

I only wanted to make a difference.

And so, you know, I'll take his words basically with what they are, a bunch of hot air, and they mean nothing.

- Listen, for over a decade, the American public has now watched Donald Trump.

His critics have assessed that he's an out-of-touch billionaire who is seeking to profit off the presidency.

They observe that he views loyalty as a one-way street.

He has little regard repeatedly for women, especially those who are victims of abuse.

So much of what he has done since he has returned to office, many people conclude was eminently predictable in 2024.

So, you know, I think the obvious question to many is why are you surprised?

- You have to understand, in the first administration, I was a rally goer.

I was one of the people that went to the Trump rallies.

I didn't run for office until 2020.

So when I went into Congress, the president was going out.

And so I didn't have a, I guess I didn't have that relationship with him as a member of Congress while he was president.

I had a different relationship with him, and that was the campaign Donald Trump, who is very, very different from the president Donald Trump.

And there's even big differences between his first administration and who he is now in his second administration that many people are shocked by.

And so I know it's like, "Wait, Marjorie, how did you not know this ahead of time?"

I just had a different perspective and just wasn't in that political establishment position to be able to see those things.

- So do you feel duped?

- No, not really.

I don't feel duped.

It's more shame on Donald Trump.

And it's actually shame on the Republicans that worship him and will never stand up to him.

So I'm not duped.

He lied.

The man lied.

And we've got video after video, "No more foreign wars.

I will bring world peace."

He called himself the president of the Board of Peace, for the love of God, and then he goes out and bombs a little girls' school in Iran and they won't even talk about it.

I mean, the whole thing is a ridiculous lie.

So do I feel duped?

No, the entire country was lied to, and the Republican Party is an utter failure in so many ways.

And I'm just like this person that goes to a restaurant and I'm tired of eating the same (beep) food that they keep serving me.

And I'm like, "I'm not going to do it anymore."

Why?

Because, "Oh, no, we have to stop the other side?"

Who cares?

The other side and... The left side and the right side are literally the same and they deliver the same result with a little bit of different flares on each side, but over and over, it's failure.

And I'm not the odd one out on this.

As a matter of fact, there's tens of millions of Americans, especially those 55 and younger, that feel exactly like I do.

I didn't have stars in my eyes about Washington, D.C.

So it was easy for me to resign and basically say, "F you to all of you," and happily, happily, go back home to Georgia.

- Okay, so you recently then made headlines when you posted a photo that went viral of you, Tucker Carlson, Joe Kent, and Representative Thomas Massie at Tucker Carlson's property in Maine with this caption, "We said no more foreign wars.

We meant it.

And we supported Donald Trump because he made that promise.

But he's betrayed us all.

The movement has begun."

A few days later, Tucker Carlson shared a 10-point vision for America after vowing to help build a third party.

So are you really launching a third party with Tucker Carlson?

- So part of my resignation leaving was to help people wake up and see that, look, no one is in there fighting for you.

Even if I stay in, even if Thomas Massie had won, no one's fixing anything.

It's all a lie.

And so to say that we are launching a, "Here, we have an organized third party," no, we need a lot of people on board with us.

That takes a massive movement of Americans, and a lot of that is Americans need to get up off their ass and also take their blinders off, and it's not going to happen in one or two election cycles.

It's something that will slowly develop, but it takes the American people realizing and owning the truth that they're faced with every single day and to stop telling themselves at night when they go to bed that it's all going to be okay, because it's not going to be okay.

- So you're building a movement, not a political party.

- The movement's already being built.

It is.

It's already being built.

- Third parties do not have a strong track record in American elections, but the original host of this program, William F. Buckley Jr., his brother served in the Senate and won in New York as a third-party candidate and, in 1971, joined his brother on "Firing Line" to argue that a successful third party needs to provide both a carrot and a stick.

Take a look.

- There is a risk involved in this situation which I don't know would be attractive.

You see, there has to be a willingness to punish in order for these movements to be effective.

- Buckley is saying a third party needs to be willing to punish the establishment parties.

I guess the question I have for you is, were there a third party, given the risk that it would punish Republicans, would you, in this circumstance, rather see Democrats succeed and punish Republicans?

- Well, from my viewpoint, and many people that agree with me, we see both parties as the same.

So there's really no threat in any way whether... It doesn't matter which party's in charge.

We get the same result.

We get more debt, more foreign wars, more focus on special interests, more focus on big corporations.

And so for many Americans that are coming to that conclusion, the appeal of a third party is absolutely what he said.

It needs to completely destroy the political establishment of both sides.

- So this week, Florida representative Anna Paulina Luna introduced a bill that would add an amendment to the Foreign Registration Act, the FARA Act as it's known, that requires social media influencers to disclose payments from foreign governments.

Do you support the bill?

- Sure.

Of course.

I think there should be a lot of transparency with funding from any foreign government or foreign-focused group or PAC.

I think that's incredibly important.

- You are now a private citizen.

You have a very large and growing social media platform.

Would you ever accept money from a foreign government or an agent of a foreign government?

- No, absolutely not.

No, I would never knowingly accept money from a foreign government.

No.

- So, moving on, when you resigned, you mentioned specific and credible death threats that you received that were directed to your son.

And on CNN, you later took responsibility for how you had participated in this culture of violent political rhetoric.

Here's what you said.

- I would like to say humbly, I'm sorry for taking part in the toxic politics.

It's very bad for our country.

- Why did you feel you needed to say that?

- Because I participated in the same toxic politics that both sides basically create, and I don't want to have anything to do with that.

Look at it.

When a Democrat is running against me, they demonize me and they use this fictitious, evil person they create of me and they send out all these fundraising emails so that they can raise money.

The Democrat Party did that to me a lot.

I participated in the same system where as a Republican, we demonize Democrats and we fundraise off of them and run against them.

And that's the system that creates such a toxic political environment where Americans are running around today thinking, you know, there's bad guys on both sides and it has increased a massive amount of political violence and death threats against elected officials.

I don't think that solves any problems for Americans.

And so what I was saying is I don't want to be part of that system anymore.

But it's also the leadership of President Trump.

He leads that.

And as someone who once, you know, thought, "He's our leader, he's our president," you know, people like me, we all fell in line into that and I find it disgusting and I don't want to have anything to do with it.

- So, you know, I think that apology feels quite sincere, and you and I both know that apologies are a great first step, even though they're words.

And I'm curious if you're committed to repairing the harm in the sense that, you know, asking your supporters to reject the kind of rhetoric you once used.

Have you taken any other concrete steps to make amends?

- Well, I think it's incredibly important to point out that I'm the only one who has said, "I don't want to have anything to do with toxic politics anymore."

And so in order for there to be true change, others have to say the same thing.

So people love to press me on this apology and press me on this issue, but no one else has said what I said.

And when President Trump called me a traitor, I got very direct death threats on my own son, to which when I told the president and texted him about it explicitly and sent him pictures of these death threats that were coming in on my own son, he told me, "It's your fault.

You deserve it."

And I have those text messages saved.

I will save them forever.

I have shown them to many people.

I haven't put them out publicly, but I have them.

But that was President Trump's words to me.

So as the only one that has come out and said, "I'm sorry I ever took place in this, I want nothing to do with it," it needs to be pointed back to everyone else, "Hey, are you willing to say what Marjorie Taylor Greene said?

Because that's what I said.

I said I want nothing to do with it.

And I have condemned every type of death threat and political violence on every single elected official, no matter what party they are in.

It should not be happening and it's shameful.

So I'm not going to be pushed into, "What more should you do, Marjorie?"

I've done my part.

- Okay.

- Others need to do the same.

- I hear you loud and clear.

- I hope so, because it's an issue for me.

- No, I understand that.

You know, the treason comment in particular really was weaponized against you.

And I remember- - Treason is serious.

You get convicted of treason, it's punishable by death.

- You know, it's funny that you just remind us of that right now because I remember that in 2019, you had said that Pelosi was guilty of treason, which is a crime punishable by death.

And I wonder if, you know, you regret using that language as it was weaponized against you and if you have privately apologized to Nancy Pelosi?

- Again, tirelessly, we have been over this.

I have already gone there.

- So you have not apologized to Nancy Pelosi?

- Oh my God.

Okay.

- No?

Okay, we can move on.

We'll move on.

- No, no, no, no, you can drag this out.

- [Margaret] No, no, we can- - I'm the only one who has ever (beep) said, "I don't want anything to do with toxic politics."

The other problem is the media, people like you, that want to drag an issue and drag somebody through the mud over something that is ridiculous.

I'm the only one.

So go out and go to all these other people who have said all these horrible things about people like me and others and put the question to them.

That's what you should do.

You should put the question to them.

I've already done what I need to do.

- It's my job to ask you questions.

Do you think President Trump should apologize to you?

- President Trump absolutely should apologize to me.

He should apologize to many people.

He should apologize to the woman in the press that he called Piggy.

He should apologize to countless people.

He should apologize to America for betraying his campaign promises.

He should apologize to the parents of the children that he dropped bombs on in the school in Iran.

- Okay.

- There's a lot of people he should apologize to, and yes, I am one of them on that list, just one of them.

- I'd like to move on to the Epstein files because you played a central role, alongside Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, in getting Congress to pass a bill that forced the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files.

And in response, the Department of Justice did go ahead and release three million pages of documents, but as you know, litigation continues over additional documents and redactions.

Those Epstein files really were the straw that broke the camel's back in the relationship between you and President Trump and that deterioration.

And now you're not in Congress.

So tell me specifically what remains unreleased that you still need to see.

- It's widely known that there's thousands of pages that haven't been released.

The Trump administration's now currently fighting to stop the release.

It's a law.

The president signed it into law himself.

So the only thing that is left to do is for the president and his administration to actually follow the law.

- You've said that in your last conversation with President Trump, you know, he rejected your request to bring the survivors into the Oval Office.

And I want to know, like, why that was so important to you and what his refusal told you.

- The president brings everyone into the Oval Office.

He literally brings in a myriad of people from all types of backgrounds.

He brought in the very people that kicked him off social media, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook.

He brings in sports teams.

He brings in mom groups.

- So what do you make of that?

What do you make of it?

- Religious groups.

- What do you make of it?

- He wouldn't bring in... He refused.

He refused.

- But why?

What do you make of it?

What's your conclusion about why he refused?

- I don't have to make a conclusion.

On that same phone call, he told me that his friends would get hurt, and I've said this on interview after interview.

It's widely known.

He told me that his friends would get hurt.

"People you know, Marjorie, at Mar-a-Lago."

- Okay.

- And so he purposely and intentionally is protecting his friends.

- Do you think he's really protecting his friends or do you think he's protecting himself?

- I can only tell you exactly what he told me, and he told me his friends would get hurt.

And again, I'm not going to project and say something that I don't have any knowledge of.

- So, listen, earlier this year, you said that the Republican Party has a woman problem.

You have expressed concern about the, this is your quote, "the MAGA Mar-a-Lago sexualization of women," and how that presents itself to younger girls.

Tell me what you mean when you say "the MAGA Mar-a-Lago sexualization of women."

- Well, you see it, I've seen it up close and you can see it in many Republican events.

It's this imagery and this sexualization of women basically, and I call it MAGA Mar-a-Lago because that's kind of the foundation of all of it, but it spreads throughout Turning Point USA.

You see it on the MAGA female social media influencers.

And I think there's so much more to women than how you look or how you dress and how you present yourself.

And it shouldn't be very skimpy clothes, massive amount of plastic surgery.

And I think women deserve a lot more.

- [Margaret] Are women respected in the MAGA movement?

- I don't think women are respected in the Republican Party.

It's a boys' club.

It literally is.

And that comes from the top down, and it's really a shame.

And then you have the president demeaning women constantly.

He's constantly attacking women.

And it's something that I think women are so tired of.

And believe me, look, I'm an accomplished woman in my career.

I've raised three children.

I very much believe in women's rights, but I'm not out there saying we need to shove it in men's faces.

Not at all.

I have much respect for men and who they are and what they accomplish as well.

So I'm trying not to come from that angle, but when the president is attacking, say like Taylor Swift, for example, one of the most popular pop stars who young women absolutely love, and he as the president is attacking her for absolutely no reason, that's a message you're telling women, and it's a horrible message.

And then in Republican, not just in Congress, but many Republican state legislatures, they never want to give women leadership roles, and it's to their own demise because guess what?

A lot of women don't want to vote for Republicans.

And I'm hearing that more and more, because they don't take us serious in what we bring to the table.

They just want to hold the power themselves, and, you know, I think the Republican Party's suffering for it and will continue to suffer.

- Well, one place where you did have a leadership role was as the chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency.

That was the DOGE Subcommittee.

And you held a hearing with the CEOs of PBS and NPR.

- Yes.

NPR and PBS have increasingly become radical left-wing echo chambers for a narrow audience of mostly wealthy, white, urban liberals and progressives who generally look down on and judge rural America.

PBS News is not just left leaning, but it actively uses taxpayer funds to push some of the most radical left positions, like featuring a drag queen on the show, "Let's Learn."

- So why are you here on PBS then?

- You invited me to come on and do this interview.

- Why'd you say yes?

- Because I talk to many media personalities and I do many interviews with many different platforms and that's just something I'm doing.

I'm talking to people.

- Marjorie Taylor Greene, thank you for joining me on "Firing Line."

- Thank you for having me.

- [Announcer] "Firing Line with Margaret Hoover" is made possible in part by Robert Granieri, Vanessa and Henry Cornell, the Margaret and Daniel Loeb Foundation, the Beth and Ravenel Curry Foundation, and by the following.

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